Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mutual Funds

I guess you could call me a data nerd. I like to pore over charts, graphs, and tables. And such things are abundant in the Investment Company Institute's just-released 49th edition of the Fact Book on the mutual-fund industry. (ICI is the mutual fund trade association).

I realize that information on such things as "Characteristics of Mutual Fund Owners" and "Significant Events in Fund History" may seem a little dull to the non-nerd (i.e., most people), but this sort of data can help you see your investments in a larger context.

Consider, for example, this graphic. It shows that 49 percent of the world's mutual-fund assets are outside the United States. I didn't know that.

It also shows that the largest class of mutual funds within the U.S. (as of Dec. 31, 2008) was the money-fund sector, with 40 percent of the entire mutual-fund market (reflecting that in 2008 a lot of money flowed into funds invested in U.S. government securities). Domestic-stock funds made up only 30 percent of the market. Bond funds accounted for 16 percent.

Other interesting data from the Fact Book:

• Forty-five percent of all U.S. households owned mutual funds in 2008 (compared with less than 6 percent in 1980);
• The median number of funds owned was four;
• Thirteen percent of U.S. households owned at least one index fund;
• More that 40 percent of index-fund assets were invested in funds tied to the S&P 500.