Maharashtra, Gujarat & South India has maximum registered investors in India

When we meet investors in India, one of the most widely discussed topics is as to ‘which state has the maximum investing population?’  

The common perception is that West India has a maximum investing population while South India has the majority of stock market investors along with the country’s capital city, New Delhi.   

For once, the perception may hold true. If we go by BSE records as of June 2, 2021, India has 6.9 crore registered investors across India with as many as 1.49 crore belonging to Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat, which boasts of having 85.9 lakh investors. Put together, both Maharashtra & Gujarat constitute almost 21.5 per cent of the total investing population of India.   

If we consider South India as a single market with states such as Tamil Nadu (42.3 lakh), Karnataka (42.2 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (36 lakh), Telangana (20.7 lakh), Kerala (19.3 lakh) and Puducherry (72,800), we will have approximately 1.61 crore investing population in total. It amounts to almost 23 per cent of the total investing population in India. Individually, UP, Delhi & West Bengal feature amongst the top 10 states with the highest investing population.   

Moreover, if we consider the top 10 states with the investing population, put together, they constitute approximately 79 per cent of the total Indian investing population.

BSE and SEBI have been taking several initiatives such as Investors Awareness Programme with lot of success to deepen the participation in equity markets as well as spread equity culture in India, especially in states where the penetration is shallow.   

Here is a list of the state-wise investing population (top 10) as per BSE records :

Data as of June 2, 2021.