Data from CDSL as of July 31 showed that the depository had 16.1 crore investor accounts, adding roughly 20 lakh accounts during the month, while NSDL, which is yet to announce its July figures, had 4.05 crore accounts as of June 30, taking the tally to 20.16 crore accounts – an all-time high.
Dhiraj Relli, managing director and chief executive officer at HDFC Securities said the continued growth in demat account additions is driven by the youth. “Both across the industry and on our platform, approximately 75% of new account openings are driven by individuals under the age of 30,” he said.
The pace of growth in account additions has slowed. So far in 2025, the total number of demat accounts has risen by over 8.8%. While both depositories combined added about 30-46 lakh accounts each month in 2024, from the beginning of 2025, the numbers have declined to 20-28 lakh new users a month.
AgenciesThe growth in demat accounts is also on account of investors opening multiple accounts across broking firms.
“The numbers may also reflect multiple accounts held by seasoned investors, rather than a rise in unique participation,” said Gagan Singla, managing director at BlinkX by JM Financial. ” While crossing a new milestone in demat accounts is encouraging, we believe that overall market penetration in India still remains lower compared to many developed and developing economies.” Brokers said the number of unique investors, based on PAN, would be less than 10 crore. This could not be independently verified.As per NSE data, the number of active clients – defined as those who trade with their broker at least once a year – was at 4.8 crore clients as of June 30.
