Ownership of Mutual Funds, Shareholder Sentiment, and Use of the Internet, 2021

Each year, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) conducts a telephone survey of US households to track households’ ownership of mutual funds and to gather information on their demographic and financial characteristics. The most recent survey was conducted from May to June 2021 and was based on a dual-frame telephone sample of 3,001 US households. Of these, 1,351 households were from a landline random digit dial (RDD) frame, and 1,650 households were from a cell phone RDD frame. Of the households contacted, 1,362 households, or 45.4 percent, owned mutual funds. This paper presents results from the survey, highlighting incidence of mutual fund ownership among US households; mutual fund shareholder sentiment; households’ willingness to take financial risk; and mutual fund–owning households’ use of the internet