The Southern Female Investor Is the New Southern Belle

When most of us think of America’s deep south, “socioeconomically progressive” won’t be the first thing to come to mind. If anything, that part of the country has a somewhat opposite reputation. Be that as it may, the analysts here at Investing.com found that the Southeast U.S. attracts the greatest regional interest in investing among women, and that Mississippi, one of the most stereotypical Southern states, leads the way.

Measuring the percentage of female users on our website for a one-year period starting June 1st, 2017, and ending May 31st, 2018, we found that throughout the entire continental U.S. the highest interest in investments among women was in the following six states: Mississippi (30 percent), West Virginia (26 percent), Arkansas (24 percent), Georgia (23 percent), Alabama (22 percent), and Louisiana (21.9 percent).

Surprised that Mississippi is America’s female investor capital? Maybe you expected states like New York and California to be hubs for female investment, but that’s simply not the case. Our data shows that New York places 30th on the list with 17.48 percent of its users being women, and California was 34th at 17.32 percent.

Perhaps it’s time to forget the image of the prim and proper Southern belle and look at the Southern female investor as the contemporary character whose prevalence is backed by data.

Here are some other interesting trends we discovered:

• Millenials Are More Investment-Oriented - During the 12-month span we measured, we found that the largest age-group of female visitors were in the 25-35 bracket (45,088 users), followed by the 35-44 bracket (32,256 users).
  We see that Millennial women are increasingly outperforming men in the investment sector, potentially due to women’s propensities to take fewer risks under duress and to embrace a big-picture outlook rather than exclusively pursuing short-term gain. Building off the current momentum of Millennial women, a new generation of female investors could be further energized by the surprising surge in interest from Southern states.
  
  
• Fashion & Consumer Electronics stocks - The Apple stock seems to be the most popular, with the largest volume of female investors (4K+). However, they’re only 15.11 percent of the total investors interested in the stock. Meanwhile, there are only 1K+ female investors interested in the Nike stock, but they make up 27.81 percent of all investors in that stock - a higher percentage than in any other stock. The data may suggest that women are more interested in investing in everyday products and industries they’re more familiar with, such as fashion/apparel and consumer electronics.
  
  
• Coffee - When it comes to the commodities market, the Investing.com female investors seem to prefer coffee to all other commodities.

Do these trends mean a shift in how Americans in the south invest their money? Is it indicative of a growing involvement of Women (particularly in the south of the United States) in the investing field?

What do you think?