One of the unexpected results of the recent rally in American stocks, combined with a market malaise throughout the rest of the world, is that U.S. companies, in aggregate, now make up more than 40% of the global market capitalization of all publicly traded stocks. This is up from just over 32% ten years ago.
What makes this more remarkable is that two-fifths of the market opportunities have been generated in a country that makes up just 6.2% of the world’s population.
Japan’s total market cap ranks in a distant second place, with 7.59% of the total—down from 8.02% ten years ago. But Japan is still punching above its weight; its population represents 1.66% of the world’s total. Similarly, the United Kingdom’s publicly traded companies make up 4.49% of the world’s total (down from 6.83% ten years ago), while England’s total population is just 0.86% of all the people in the world.
Among other big disparities: China’s publicly traded companies make up just 7.51% of the world’s total, even though China makes up 18.2% of the world’s population. The disparity is even greater in India, whose companies make up 2.83% of global market cap despite India representing 17.5% of the world’s population.
This article was written by an independent writer for Brewster Financial Planning LLC and is not intended as individualized legal or investment advice.