The Employee Benefit Research Institute reports that growth in the number of 401(k)-type plans and the number of participants in those plans has slowed in recent years compared to the 1990s.

The EBRI study shows that ownership and assets in both 401(k)-type plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) have risen, that the growth of IRA assets is due to rollovers from other tax-qualified retirement plans, and that most new IRA contributions are going into tax-free-on-withdrawal (nondeductible) Roth IRAs.

“IRAs and defined contribution plans held $7.5 trillion in assets at the end of the year 2006,” according to Craig Copeland, EBRI senior research associate and author of the study. “Although Americans have amassed a substantial amount of total wealth in these plans, the data also show that a majority of Americans still do not have a retirement plan.”