The number of Australians who own shares has risen in the past two years, as has those with direct ownership, and many intend to buy more shares.
Research commissioned by the Australian Securities Exchange shows about 7.3 million Australian adults owned shares as of the end of 2010, or 43 per cent of the population.
That is up from 41 per cent in 2008, when the study was last conducted.
The number of people in Western Australia that own shares was ranked third in the nation, with 41 per cent reporting direct share ownership.
The ACT was top-ranked, with 57 per cent of people owning shares.
The number of people who directly own shares increased from 36 per cent of the population in 2008 to 39 per cent in 2010, and 13 per cent of Australians have self-managed superannuation funds, up from 10 per cent in 2008.
In the same period, the All Ordinaries index rose by 28 per cent.
The rising level of share ownership has seen Australia maintain its position as one of the world's leading share owners on a per capita basis, ASX said.
Just over one quarter of respondents in the ASX research said they were likely to buy shares in the next year, up from 22 per cent in 2008.
The findings are based on interviews with 2,400 randomly selected Australians aged over 18.
