Capital markets: who owns British companies?
Since 1963 the ownership of UK-listed shares has shifted from mostly-UK institutions and individuals to majority-overseas — a change with real consequences for who benefits from British corporate profits, and who decides how those companies are run.
58.8%
Owned by overseas investors, 2024 — up from 7% in 1963
1.6%
Owned by UK pension funds, 2024 — down from 6.4% in 1963
11.6%
Owned directly by individuals, 2024
This is the ONS's own biennial "Ownership of UK Quoted Shares" survey — the definitive source, going back to 1963. The single biggest story in it is the collapse of UK pension funds' direct share ownership, from a peak of around a third of the market in the early 1990s to under 2% today — a theme this site connects to business investment on the Why doesn't Britain invest in Britain? page.
Who owns UK-quoted shares?
Overseas ownership rose from 7% (1963) to 58.8% (2024); pension funds fell from a peak above 30% in the early 1990s to 1.6% today.
View data table
| Year | Rest of the world | Individuals | Pension funds | Insurance companies | Other (banks, unit/investment trusts, public sector, charities, companies) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 7 | 54 | 6.4 | 10 | — |
| 1969 | 6.6 | 47.4 | 9 | 12.2 | — |
| 1975 | 5.6 | 37.5 | 16.8 | 15.9 | — |
| 1981 | 3.6 | 28.2 | 26.7 | 20.5 | — |
| 1989 | 12.8 | 20.6 | 30.6 | 18.6 | 17.4 |
| 1990 | 11.8 | 20.3 | 31.7 | 20.4 | 15.8 |
| 1991 | 12.8 | 19.9 | 31.3 | 20.8 | 15.2 |
| 1992 | 13.1 | 20.4 | 32.4 | 19.5 | 14.6 |
| 1993 | 16.3 | 17.7 | 31.5 | 20 | 14.7 |
| 1994 | 16.3 | 20.3 | 27.8 | 21.9 | 13.7 |
| 1997 | 28 | 16.5 | 22.1 | 23.6 | 10 |
| 1998 | 30.7 | 16.7 | 21.7 | 21.6 | 9.5 |
| 1999 | 33 | 15.3 | 19.6 | 21.6 | 10.5 |
| 2000 | 35.7 | 16 | 17.7 | 21 | 9.5 |
| 2001 | 35.7 | 14.8 | 16.1 | 20 | 13.4 |
| 2002 | 35.9 | 14.3 | 15.6 | 19.9 | 14.3 |
| 2003 | 36.1 | 14.9 | 16 | 17.3 | 15.7 |
| 2004 | 36.3 | 14.1 | 15.7 | 17.2 | 16.6 |
| 2006 | 40 | 12.8 | 12.7 | 14.7 | 19.8 |
| 2008 | 41.5 | 10.2 | 12.8 | 13.4 | 22.1 |
| 2010 | 43.1 | 10.6 | 5.6 | 8.8 | 31.8 |
| 2012 | 53.3 | 10.6 | 4.7 | 6.2 | 25.1 |
| 2014 | 53.7 | 12.4 | 3 | 5.9 | 25.1 |
| 2016 | 53.9 | 12.3 | 3 | 4.9 | 25.8 |
| 2018 | 55.7 | 13.3 | 2.2 | 3.9 | 24.9 |
| 2020 | 56.3 | 12 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 27.3 |
| 2022 | 57.7 | 10.8 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 27.5 |
| 2024 | 58.8 | 11.6 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 26.8 |
United Kingdom · Source: Office for National Statistics, Ownership of UK quoted shares · UK Stat Pack (calculated from ONS data), Ownership of UK quoted shares · as of 2024
Stock market performance — an honest limitation
A long-run comparison of the FTSE 100, FTSE 250, S&P 500 and a global index — split into price return, dividends and total return shown separately. This site checked every realistic free route and could not find one that is simultaneously free, automatable, historically long, and legally clear for a public site to redistribute:
- Bank of England statistical database — does not publish any FTSE or equity-index series (checked directly; its instrument categories cover gilts, Bank Rate and mortgage data, not stock indices).
- FTSE Russell & MSCI factsheets — genuinely free to view, and labelled Total Return / Gross Return, but only ~10–15 years deep and their own footer text explicitly requires a paid data licence for any reproduction or redistribution.
- FRED (S&P 500 price series) — free and machine-readable, but only a rolling 10-year window, price-only (no dividends), and restricted by its own copyright page to non-commercial/personal use.
- Yahoo Finance — has full-depth data via an unofficial endpoint, but Yahoo's own Terms of Service explicitly prohibit automated scraping for this kind of use. This site will not use it.
Per this site's standing rule — document the limitation rather than illegally scrape licensed data or fabricate a history — no long-run FTSE/S&P chart is shown. Instead, the chart below uses a genuinely free, official, comparably-sourced measure: the total market value of all UK-quoted shares, from the same ONS share-ownership survey above.
Total market value of UK-quoted shares
The total market value of UK-quoted shares reached £2,535.7bn in 2024 — not a return figure, a size-of-market figure.
View data table
| Year | Total market value of UK-quoted shares |
|---|---|
| 1989 | 505.4 |
| 1990 | 444.9 |
| 1991 | 530.2 |
| 1992 | 615.7 |
| 1993 | 798.7 |
| 1994 | 761.9 |
| 1997 | 1267.9 |
| 1998 | 1503.7 |
| 1999 | 1807.2 |
| 2000 | 1810.7 |
| 2001 | 1554.1 |
| 2002 | 1154.6 |
| 2003 | 1368 |
| 2004 | 1480.2 |
| 2006 | 1858.2 |
| 2008 | 1158.4 |
| 2010 | 1831.8 |
| 2012 | 1749.9 |
| 2014 | 2000.8 |
| 2016 | 2040.3 |
| 2018 | 1971.7290000000005 |
| 2020 | 2168.5 |
| 2022 | 2417.8 |
| 2024 | 2535.7 |
United Kingdom · Source: Office for National Statistics, Ownership of UK quoted shares · series Table 13 — Total · as of 2024
How this is calculated, and what "evidence class" means
- A — Observed official statistic — every series on this page (ONS Ownership of UK Quoted Shares survey).
No calculated (C-class) figures appear on this page — every number is a direct read of the ONS survey's own published tables.