Nine out of ten Germans believe investing in gold is safe – yet fewer than one in three include gold in their investment portfolio structure. The biggest gap between attitudes and investment behaviour lies with the 30 to 39-year-olds: although an above-average number of people (51 percent) in this age group believe that gold is very safe, only 29 percent of those surveyed actually invest in it. This was the finding of a representative study with over 1,000 respondents conducted by the opinion polling institute TNS Emnid on behalf of Deutsche Börse Commodities GmbH.
Confidence in gold clearly increases with net household income. While just shy of half (45 percent) of higher-income individuals with a monthly household net income of over €2,500 consider gold a very safe investment, only one third of those with disposable income of less than €1,000 per month feel the same way. “There are marked differences especially in how gold is used as an investment. While lower-income groups tend to have more gold jewellery, higher-income groups invest more frequently in products such as Xetra-Gold,” said Steffen Orben, managing director of Deutsche Börse Commodities GmbH. Overall, the percentage of people surveyed who invest in gold is almost identical across all income groups. The level of investment in other precious metals lags significantly behind.
Savings accounts remain the most popular form of investment in Germany, with 61 percent answering that they hold their assets here. More than two thirds of young people aged between 14 and 29 trust in savings accounts despite current low interest rates. Material assets such as real estate followed closely behind at 57 percent of those polled. Confidence in these assets rises with income: people with net household income of more than €2,500 prefer material assets to savings accounts.
About the survey
The data used in this media release was collected by the market research institute TNS Emnid. The survey sample size was 1,004. The survey was conducted from 3 April 2013 to 4 April 2013. The information was gathered by telephone survey. The results are weighted and representative for the German population over the age of 14.
