PALO ALTO, Calif. (CNN/Money) - In what the mutual fund and securities industries clearly see as good news, more U.S. households now own stocks than they did in 1999. Less clear is whether those households, who've taken a bath since the last time their participation was measured, are so thrilled to be involved.

The data comes from the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for mutual funds, and the Securities Industry Association, the primary trade group representing the financial services industry. The groups last surveyed U.S. investors in early 1999, when the market was booming. They went back to the pool in February of this year, when the situation was considerably worse.

The report is massive, and it will keep professional statisticians in the financial world busy for months. But the funds and securities groups portray the key findings as an overwhelming endorsement by the American public in the value of equity investing as well as a buy-and-hold strategy for their retirement goals.

Almost half of all U.S. households hold stocks in some form, they report, an increase in absolute terms of about 7 percent since the last time they measured. The survey portrays these average investors as even-keeled Everypeople: Married, in their late 40s, earning in the low $60,000s per year. Almost 80 percent of the surveyed households participate in a retirement plan, and many first invested in the stock market through that plan.

From the perspective of the folks selling stocks and mutual funds, this is all really good news. It shows that investors are sticking with their investments, even when times are shaky.

I'm not necessarily going to disagree, even after factoring in the dismal performance of the past nine months, which isn't reflected in the survey. But the tone of the report reads a little like what you might expect from the milk industry showing that more people are drinking milk after years of celebrated advertising featuring celebrities with milk mustaches.

The fact is that one reason participation in the stock market is up is the relentless advertising over the past few years by the securities industry. Unlike milk, however, it isn't exactly clear that the industry's customers have been well served.

The group says 58 percent of respondents got financial advice from professional financial advisors. (What percentage do you reckon is happy with the advice they got?)

Of interest, 5 percent fewer investors reported holding any individual stocks than did in 1999. That shows that, if nothing else, individuals have become a wee bit more wary as they've watched their life savings shrivel.

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Much was written late into the bull market about the democratization of the capital markets and how investing in stocks wasn't just for rich people any more. This clearly was great for the securities industry, which had brought in a whole new crop of customers.

I suspect stock ownership will be a little like furniture going forward: Once you've moved a heavy piece into your house you're unlikely to remove it, even if you're not crazy about it anymore. As for growth, just witness the continuing layoffs at places like Schwab and Merrill Lynch, which cater to individual investors, to see that even if half of U.S. households are in the game, fewer and fewer are all that excited about it.

Adam Lashinsky is a senior writer for Fortune magazine. Send e-mail to Adam at lashinskysbottomline@yahoo.com.

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