The total number of shareholders of listed companies with December settlement of account reached 15 million, the largest ever. However, Samsung Electronics saw its shareholder count fall by more than 1 million despite a rise in its share price.
According to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) on the 18th, shareholders of 2,727 listed companies with December settlement of account totaled about 14.56 million on a non-duplicated basis. That was up 2.3% from a year earlier, surpassing the previous peak in 2022 (14.4 million). The number of listed companies also rose 1.5% in the same period.
Shareholders in total held about 117.4 billion shares, with an average of 8,066 shares across 6.03 issues per person. While the number of issues increased, the number of shares held by individuals fell 1.7%.
By shareholder type, individual investors numbered 14.42 million, accounting for 99.1% of the total. Individuals held an average of 3,910 shares, and their share of total stock ownership was 48%, down from 49.6% a year earlier. In contrast, the shares of corporations and foreigners rose to 38.9% and 12.6%, respectively, from 37.9% and 11.9%.
By market, in the main board, corporate investors held about 28.6 billion shares (46.2%), the most among investor types, while in KOSDAQ, individual investors accounted for a high share with about 34.1 billion shares (63.2%).
By issue, Samsung Electronics remained No. 1 with 4.61 million shareholders, but the figure fell by more than 1 million from a year earlier (5.66 million). Compared with 2022 (6.38 million), it decreased by about 1.7 million and was the lowest since 2020 (2.95 million).
After Samsung Electronics came Kakao (1.6 million), SK hynix (1.18 million), Naver (1.15 million) and Doosan Enerbility (1.11 million) in shareholder count. Notably, SK hynix, which had fewer than 800,000 shareholders in 2024, saw its shareholder base surge more than 50% on the back of a share price rally.
By age, those in their 50s were the largest group at 3.33 million (23.1%). They were followed by those in their 40s (21.8%), 30s (19.1%) and under 20 (5.3%). By shares held, those in their 50s also had the highest share at 34.4%, followed by those in their 60s at 26.6%.
By gender, men accounted for 51.5% (7.42 million) and women 48.5% (7 million), a similar split, but men held 72% of the shares (40.6 billion), far more than women at 28% (15.8 billion).
By region, age and gender, the group with the highest average number of shares held was women in their 50s living in Suwon (46,672 shares). They were followed by women in their 50s in Yongin (45,838 shares) and men in their 50s in Suwon (43,570 shares).
By total shares held, men in their 50s living in Gangnam District held the most at about 1.48 billion shares, and men in their 60s in Gangnam District and Seongnam were also among the top groups.