NSE adds 1 crore investors in 8 months, total base hits 12 crore; 1 in 4 are women

After crossing the 11-crore mark in January, investors onboarded by National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) increased by an additional crore in about eight months, the largest domestic stock exchange said on Thursday. 

The unique registered investor base on the NSE crossed the 12-crore mark on September 23. The total number of investor accounts (Unique client codes) registered with NSE stands at 23.5 crore, having crossed the 23-crore mark in July 2025, thanks to digitidation, greater fintech access, an expanding middle class, and supportive policy measures.

"The structural expansion of the investor base has accelerated meaningfully over time. The registered investor base hit the 1 crore mark 14 years after NSE started operations, the next 1 crore additions took about seven years, the subsequent 1 crore addition took about three-and-half years, and the next one a little over a year," NSE said. 

In other words, it took over 25 years for the registered investor base to hit the 4-crore mark in March 2021, with the subsequent 1 crore investors being added in about 6-7 months. 

NSE said one in four investors today are women. There is a rising interest in financial markets and stock-ownership among the country’s youth in recent years. The 12 crore registered investors in India today have a median age of about 33 years, down from 38 years just five years ago, with nearly 40 per cent of them being less than 30 years old.

This has been accompanied by widening participation across the country. The investor base today spans covering 99.85 per cent of India’s pin codes.

"As of August 31st, 2025, there were three states with the count of unique registered investors more than a crore, with Maharashtra leading the pack with 1.9 crore investors, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 1.4 crore investors and Gujarat, the latest entrant in this set, with 1.03 crore investors," NSE said.

Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE, said investor count increased, despite persistent concerns regarding the contours of global trade and geopolitics. 

This steady growth, he said, is supported by several key drivers: a streamlined Know Your Customer (KYC) process, enhanced financial literacy through stakeholder-led investor awareness programs, and sustained positive market sentiment. 

"The rise in participation across exchange traded instruments—including equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), government bonds, and corporate bonds, underscores these factors,” Krishnan said.