How do you compare to the typical ETF investor?
Marketing Communication
Amundi’s ‘Decoding Digital Investments: Embracing the New Digital Norm’ report is the source for all data cited in this article.
Click here to read the full report
The computer game The Sims was released 25 years ago. As with many other games, players have the opportunity to create their own characters. Everything from gender to age to hairstyle and fashion can be customised.
In a similar way, using data from Amundi’s 2025 Decoding Digital Investments survey, we can build a character profile of a typical retail or individual, ETF investor.
In Europe, a retail ETF investor is more likely to be a man (61%) than a woman (39%), the survey shows. Our character is in all probability under 40 – in Europe some two-thirds of retail ETF investors are in the age brackets covering 21-40. In France 78% of retail ETF investors are under the age of 40 compared to 75% in Italy, 73% in the UK and 61% in Germany.
Source: Decoding Digital Investments - March 2025
If our character were in Germany, they’d form part of the 38% of retail investors who have invested in ETFs, compared to 24% in the UK, 22% in Italy and 20% in France, according to the data.
The larger ETF market share in Germany versus European peers underscores the increased penetration of digital solutions in that market, in which two in three German ETF investors invest via an ETF savings plan (66%) or online trading tool (31%).
Also highlighting this trend, 15% of German ETF investors have used a robo-advisor as a type of financial advice, while 2% of Italians have done so – the lowest in Europe.
That said, Italian ETF investors are more likely to have accessed financial advice than both the European and German average. The most widely used advisory services in Italy are supplied by a bank advisor: 62% in Italy vs 50% in Germany, and 57% in Europe as a whole.
Retail ETF investors in France and Germany say that ensuring a comfortable retirement is either their primary motivation for investing, while Italians and Brits cite this as their secondary motivation (respondents in these countries are primarily driven to ‘make as much money as possible’). However, retail ETF investors in these markets have different levels of confidence in the likelihood of achieving the objective of a comfortable, secure retirement
British respondents are the most optimistic, with 82% saying they are confident in reaching their retirement goals. Italians trailed at 67%. Unsurprisingly, while a comfortable retirement is a key motivation across all age groups, for those in their fifties the percentage highlighting its importance almost doubles to 65%.
However, 70% of European ETF investors have confidence they are making the right decisions, seven percentage points higher than European investors in general.
Source: Amundi: Decoding Digital - March 2025
Trust in social media
Data from the survey shows that European retail ETF investors are sceptical about financial information and recommendations offered on social media. Less than one-third say they trust investment views from these platforms. Global investors are more trusting (38%) while ETF investors in Asia are far more confident in information received from social media (49%).
“I already feel like I’m doing enough,” is why 29% of European retail ETF investors say they do not invest more. Then comes concerns over how much they earn (27%) and saying they can’t risk financial losses (20%).
Concerns over market performance, say 16% of European retail ETF investors, is another reason that is often cited, but this is far below Asian retail ETF investors of whom 31% invest less due to market worries.
It comes as no surprise, then, that 35% of European retail ETF investors would invest more if their earnings were higher, while 25% say they’d set more aside for investing if there was more certainty in the economic climate.
Germans are the nationality that are most likely to know about ETFs without owning any – with 61% of investors in Germany falling into this category, far exceeding the European average of 48%.
Just over one-third of Europeans say they have heard of ETFs but don’t know how they work. If you’re reading this article you won’t be part of the 15% who say they have no familiarity with ETFs.
The findings in this article are based on the views of 11,355 investors surveyed across 25 countries on four continents. We set quotas by both age and gender to ensure to have a sufficient and robust sample in order to confidently assess differences between demographic groups. Data for ‘Decoding Digital Investments’ was collected between 15 November 2024 and 3 January 2025. This research was an independent study undertaken by H/Advisors Cicero.
All data are given for illustrative purposes only and may change over time without prior notice.
