I don't know about the "Western world" but in the US stock ownership is dramatically more prevalent. At the same time, pension plans have nearly disappeared in

I don't know about the "Western world" but in the US stock ownership is dramatically more prevalent. At the same time, pension plans have nearly disappeared in the private sector. The ownership rates are trivially searchable. The 2nd link I found was a Gallup survey that estimated around 60% of US residents, which is roughly 1.5x the portion that have a college degree. If you're thinking of the poor, Social Security payments increase with inflation, so they're not quite fixed-income.