South Korea's stock market hits record 14.56M shareholders by 2025
Gangnam style? More like Gangnam investor style. Men in their 50s living in southern Seoul's trendy Gangnam District held the largest stock assets in the country, according to recent data.
The Korea Securities Depository released a report on the ownership status of stocks by age group and residential area by analyzing shareholders of listed companies with December 2025 fiscal year-end settlements on Wednesday.
As of December of last year, the number of shareholders - excluding duplicates - across 2,727 listed companies stood at about 14.56 million, up by around 330,000 people, or 2.3 percent, from a year earlier, marking a record high.
That translates to roughly one in three Koreans owning domestic stocks.
The total number of shares held reached about 117.4 billion, with an average of 8,066 shares per person. The average number of companies held per investor was about six. Compared to the previous year, the number of companies held per person increased by 4.1 percent, while the total number of shares held declined by 1.7 percent.
By residence, gender and age group, men in their 50s living in Gangnam District held the largest total number of shares, at about 1.49 billion. The average number of shares held per person in this group was 41,422 - more than five times the national average of 8,066.
Men in their 60s, also living in Gangnam District, ranked second with about 990 million total shares, followed by men in their 60s living in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, with about 680 million total shares.
Top holdings were concentrated in wealthy districts including Gangnam, Seocho and Yongsan in Seoul, along with Seongnam and Yongin in Gyeonggi.
By company, Samsung Electronics had the largest number of shareholders at 4.61 million. The figure, however, has fallen sharply - down more than 1 million from a year earlier and about 1.7 million fewer than 2022, marking the lowest level since 2020.
Samsung Electronics was followed by Kakao with 1.6 million shareholders, SK hynix with 1.18 million, Naver with 1.15 million and Doosan Enerbility with 1.11 million.
On the Kospi market, S-Oil had the highest foreign ownership ratio at 74.3 percent, followed by KB Financial Group at 72.2 percent and Hana Financial Group at 67 percent.
On the Kosdaq market, Korea Ratings had the highest foreign ownership at 81 percent, followed by Fino at 79.8 percent and Organic Tea Cosmetics Holdings at 79.2 percent.
By age group, investors in their 50s accounted for the largest number of shareholders at 3.33 million, followed by those in their 40s with 3.15 million and those in their 30s with 2.61 million. Investors under 20 also numbered 770,000.
Investors in their 50s also held the largest share of stocks at 34.4 percent, or 19.4 billion shares.
Those in their 60s accounted for only 15.3 percent of shareholders but held 26.6 percent of total shares, ranking second after those in their 50s.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JANG SEO-YUN [[email protected]]
