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Global Wealth Reaches New All-Time High

Despite a decade of negative real returns on equities, several equity bear markets and the collapse of housing bubbles, the 2013 Credit Suisse Wealth Report finds that global wealth has more than doubled since 2000, reaching a new all-time high of 241 trillion US dollars. Strong economic growth and rising population levels in emerging nations are important drivers of this trend. Average wealth per adult has also hit a new peak of 51,600 US dollars, but inequality remains high.

source: Credit Suisse Research Institute

https://www.credit-suisse.com/sites/mobile-website/en/magazine.html/content/articles/pwp/news-and-expertise/2013/10/en/global-wealth-reaches-new-all-time-high.html

Wealth Per Adult Across Countries: Switzerland Remains On Top

As already noted, global household wealth equates to 51,600 US dollars per adult, a new all-time high for average net worth. This average global value masks considerable variation across countries and regions, as is evident in the figure. The richest nations, with wealth per adult over 100,000 US dollars, are found in North America, Western Europe, and among the rich Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries. They are headed by Switzerland, which in 2011 became the first country in which average wealth exceeded 500,000 US dollars. It dropped below this mark in 2012, but this year equity price rises resulted in a new peak value of 513,000 US dollars per adult. Australia (403,000 US dollars), Norway (380,000 US dollars) and Luxembourg (315,000 US dollars) all experienced an increase in wealth per adult and retain their respective second, third and fourth places from 2012. The United States, Sweden, France, Singapore, Belgium and Denmark are close behind, with average wealth per adult in the 250,000 to 300,000 US dollar range. A year ago, Japan moved up to fourth place in the table, but it has now been demoted and no longer ranks among the top ten countries.


Distribution of Wealth Across Individuals: Inequality Remains High

To determine how global wealth is distributed across households and individualsrather than regions or countrieswe combine our data on the level of household wealth across countries with information on the pattern of wealth distribution within countries. Our estimates for mid-2013 indicate that once debts have been subtracted, an adult requires just 4,000 US dollars in assets to be in the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, a person needs at least 75,000 US dollars to be a member of the top 10 percent of global wealth holders, and 753,000 US dollars to belong to the top 1 percent. Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1 percent of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest 10 percent hold 86 percent of the world’s wealth, and the top 1 percent alone account for 46 percent of global assets.