Global Wealth Distribution

House · Jul 22, 2013

[ins]The richest 200 people have about $2.7 trillion, which is more than the poorest 3.5 billion people[/ins], who have only $2.2 trillion combined.

In 2012, 3.2 billion individuals more than two-thirds of the global adult population have wealth below USD 10,000

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1j06Qt3rgY[/youtube]

Global household wealth in mid-2012 totaled $223 trillion, equivalent to USD 49,000 per adult in the world. This is a decline of $12.3 trillion mostly due to a $10.9 trillion decline in European wealth, however it is double the $113 trillion in total wealth at the start of the millennium. Losses in Africa, India and the Latin American countries were offset by modest gains in North America (USD 880 billion) and China (USD 560 billion).

CS expects total household wealth to rise by almost 50% in the next five years from $223 trillion in 2012 to $330 trillion in 2017. What CS does not say is that the bulk of this increase is courtesy of Federal Reserve-facilitated wealth redistribution from the lower and middle classes to the upper class.

The number of millionaires worldwide is expected to increase by about 18 million, reaching 46 million in 2017.

China is expected to surpass Japan as the second wealthiest country in the world. However, the USA should remain on top of the wealth league, with $89 trillion by 2017.

Global wealth by country: The figure for average global wealth masks the considerable variation across countries and regions (see Figure 3). The richest nations, with wealth per adult over USD 100,000, 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 USD 500,000. Exchange rate fluctuations have reduced its wealth per adult from USD 540,000 in 2011 to USD 470,000 in 2012; but this still remains considerably higher than the level in Australia (USD 350,000) and Norway (USD 330,000), which retain second and third places despite falls of about 10%.
Close behind are a group of nations with average wealth above USD 200,000, many of which have experienced double-digit depreciations against the US dollar, such as France, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Italy. Countries in the group which have not been adversely affected have moved up the rankings most notably Japan to fourth place with wealth of USD 270,000 per adult and the USA to seventh place with USD 260,000 per adult.

Interestingly, the ranking by median wealth is slightly different, favoring countries with lower levels of wealth inequality. As was the case last year, Australia (USD 195,000) tops the table by a considerable margin, with Japan, Italy, Belgium, and the UK in the band from USD 110,000 to 140,000, and Singapore and Switzerland with values around USD 90,000. The USA lags far behind with median wealth of just USD 55,000.
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ZH

willrocks · Jul 22, 2013

At the rate wealth is moving west to east. My guess is it will wipe out middle-class in western society. Then the whole world will have two classes. The worker/slave class, and the elite class. There won't be much in between. Perhaps in 15-30 years.

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Global Wealth Distribution

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