The Australian stock market has provided the highest returns to investors over the last 120 years, topping equities on indexes in the U.S. and Europe, according to research by Credit Suisse.

The ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) offered real annual returns — when translated into U.S. dollars — higher than 6.5% since the year 1900. The U.S. stock market came second in the same period, followed by South Africa's.

Analysts at Credit Suisse told CNBC that there is no definitive answer as to why Australian equities did so well, but there are a few factors which may have helped its performance. These included its richness in natural resources, it being geographically away from World War II and the fact it weathered the global financial crisis better than the U.S. and Europe.

Austria, Italy and Belgium were the worst-performing markets between 1900 and 2019, according to Credit Suisse's global investment returns yearbook.

The same report highlighted how consumer preferences and company offerings changed dramatically over that period.

At the start of 2019, "virtually no one had driven a car, made a phone call, used an electric light, heard recorded music, or seen a movie; no one had flown in an aircraft, listened to the radio, watched TV, used a computer, sent an e-mail, or used a smartphone," the report said. This had been mirrored in the kind of companies listed.

The countries included in the report represented 98% of the global equity market in 1900 and they still form over 91% of the investable universe at the start of 2020.

The Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook was done in collaboration with the London Business School and Cambridge University. It provides 120 years of data on stocks, bonds, bills, inflation and currency for 23 national markets and for the world as a whole.