The number of South Korean women investing in stocks has doubled over the past four years amid an equity investment craze, data showed Thursday.

Asia's fourth-largest economy had 3.88 million female stock investors as of the end of December last year, compared with 1.94 million four years earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD).

The growth rate is much higher than the 77.8 percent increase in the number of male stock investors to 5.21 million from 2.93 million over the cited period.

In particular, the number of female stock investors increased by 1.47 million in 2020 from a year earlier, or a 60.9 percent on-year jump. Over the past year, the number of male stock investors rose 40.8 percent, or 1.51 million.

After surpassing the 2 million mark for the first time in 2017, the number of female investors climbed by 250,000 in 2018 and 160,000 in 2019.

Industry watchers attributed the sharp rise in female stock investors to their growing concern over household finances and easy access to stock-related information through YouTube and other media.

The data also showed female stock investors made up 42.7 percent of the total last year, up from 39.8 percent in 2016.

The number of shares held by female investors also soared 53.4 percent to 13.2 billion from 8.6 billion during the four-year period. (Yonhap)