The past few years have been a bumpy ride for investors with the wild swings in the stock market, rising property prices and the crypto crash. But even so, nearly half (48%) of the Australian adult population currently own investments. Which Aussies are investing and what are they buying? Read on to find out.
Key Australian investment statistics
About a quarter (24%) of Aussie investors made their first investment within the past 2 years.
Cash is the most popular investment (30%) followed by shares (16%).
Men (58%) are more likely to invest than women (39%).
Baby boomers are the most likely generation to hold investments at 57%.
Aussie investments account for 22.3% of the nominal GDP in March 2022.
Aussie investors
48% of Australians hold investments
Most popular investment
30% of Aussies invest in cash
Gender gap
Aussie men are 1.5x more likely than women to invest
Male 58%
Female 39%
What are Australians investing in?
48% of Australian adults, or an estimated 9.8 million people, currently have some form of investment outside their superannuation, according to Finder's September 2022 survey.
About a quarter (23%) of Aussie investors made their very first investment within the past 2 years and nearly a fifth (17%) said they invested all their spare cash in the early months of the pandemic.
Data from the CEIC suggests that Australian investments account for 22% of the nominal GDP in March 2022. That's lower than Canada (23%) and the European Union (24%), on par with the United States and United Kingdom (22% each), and higher than Russia (15%) and Mexico (21%).
Cash is the most popular investment among Australians, with 30% of Aussies counting cash in their savings accounts as an investment. This is followed by shares in specific companies such as Apple or CBA (16%), term deposits and property (9% each).
Meanwhile, the least popular investments among Aussies include peer-to-peer lending (P2P) at just 0.8%, commodities (0.9%) and annuities (2%).
The investing gender gap
Men are more likely than women to have investments, with 58% of men saying they own at least one investment compared to just 39% of women.
Men tend to have bigger, more diversified investment portfolios than women: 61% of men describe their portfolios as diversified compared to 45% of women.
Women are more risk averse, with 20% preferring investments with guaranteed returns compared to 14% of men.
Women list a wider range of challenges faced when investing compared to men, such as fear of investment under-performance (34% of women compared to 27% of men), fear of hidden fees (32% versus 27%) and information overload (30% versus 24%).
Cash is king for both sexes: 37% of men invest in cash while 24% of women do the same, making it the most popular investment choice for both groups.
Shares are the second most popular investment for both men and women; however, men (24%) are 3 times more likely to invest in shares than women (8%).
Term deposits are the third most popular investment for men (13%), while property (6%) rounds off the top 3 for women.
The older you are, the more likely you are to hold investments. Baby boomers are the most likely to own investments (57%). In fact, 43% of Australia's high value investors are aged 60 and above. They are then followed by generation X (52%), gen Y (44%) and gen Z (39%) in terms of top investors.
Cash is the most popular investment across all generations with 41% of baby boomers having cash investments, 32% for generation X, 23% for generation Y and 25% for generation Z.
Shares take the second spot for baby boomers, gen X and gen Y. 22% each of the boomers and gen X invest in shares, while 13% of gen Y say the same. However, the generations differ when it comes to the last spot in their top 3 investments.
Baby boomers place term deposits (20%) as their third most popular investment while it's property for both gen X (13%) and gen Y (10%). Gen Z's top 3 differs the most with ETFs coming in at second (8%) and shares in third (6%).
Patricia Cruz is a public relations professional at Finder. She has a Bachelor degree in Organizational Communication from the University of the Philippines Manila. See full bio
If you’re thinking of investing in gold, our guide will explain how and where to buy gold in Australia as well as the pros and cons of investing in it.
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