It’s estimated just 1% to 3% of American households owned stocks heading into the Great Depression. Few people made enough money to save and invest back then plus it was difficult to access the market for regular people — no 401ks, IRAs, online brokers, robo-adviors, index funds, ETFs, Robinhood, etc. By the early-1980s stock ownership was more like 1 in 5 households. Things really ramped up in the 1990s as th...

source: https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2024/05/stock-market-home-ownership-rates/