The global “ultra high net worth” (UHNW) population surged by 46,000 last year to a record 218,200, as the world’s wealthiest people benefitted from a “nearly explosion of wealth” during the pandemic recovery.
According to Credit Suisse research, the number of UHNW people – those with assets worth more than $50 million – increased in 2021 as the super-rich profit from soaring house prices and thriving stock markets. The number of people in the UHNW category has increased by more than 50% in the previous two years.
There will be 40% more millionaires in five years
The analysis says that the number of millionaires will grow by 40% over the next five years, even though rising interest rates and Russia’s war in Ukraine are hurting asset classes and private fortunes this year. Credit Suisse says that by 2026, more than 87.5 million people will have at least $1 million in assets, up from 62.5% in 2021.
The tremendous rise in the wealth of the world’s top 0.00004% of adults comes while billions of low- and middle-income people struggle to deal with soaring food and energy prices, many of whom lost their savings during the pandemic.
According to a Credit Suisse report, which handles the fortunes of many of the world’s wealthiest people, the fast expansion in financial assets resulted in increased inequality in 2021. The rise in inequality is most likely due to an increase in the value of financial assets during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The rebound of macroeconomic activity in a low-interest environment created extraordinary circumstances for household wealth creation in 2021, the report says.
Wealth growth has not been dispersed fairly, though. For the second year in a row, the richest 1% of the worldwide population raised their proportion of total global wealth to 46%, up from 44% in 2020.
America with most of the world’s richest
More than one-third of millionaires live in the United States, which has 24.5 million millionaires, or 39% of the world’s total.
China ranks second, with 10% of the world’s millionaires, ahead of Japan (5.4%), the United Kingdom (4.6%), and France (4.5%). China is also expected to add the most millionaires in the next five years.
Switzerland was rated the richest country in terms of mean average wealth per adult, with $700,000, surpassing the United States, which had $579,000.
However, when the median average wealth per adult is evaluated, the discrepancies in those nations are apparent. Switzerland drops to sixth position with a median wealth of $168,000, while the United States falls to 18th place with $93,000. Australia is first in the world in terms of median wealth, at $274,000.
The country with the greatest gain in mean average wealth was New Zealand, which witnessed an increase of $114,000 to $472,000.
