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Visualise the entire world’s wealth inequality Wealth inequality shows up in a variety of ways. You can see it in the uneven distribution of millionaires around the world, and find it in the series of maps we published this time last year, which showed the average wealth per adult in each country. And it’s the same story when you look at median wealth per adult around the world Sourced from howmuch.net/articles/wealth-per-adult-world-2019
much money, and 50% have less. Our map visualises the median total net worth per adult living in each country according to a new report by Credit Suisse.
Top 10 countries by median wealth per adult 1. Switzerland: US$227 891 2. Australia: US$181 361 3. Iceland: US$165 961 4. Hong Kong: US$146 887 5. Luxembourg: US$139 789 6. Belgium: US$117 093
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ealth inequality is most often measured by the share of wealth owned by top wealth groups, or by the Gini coefficient, an index that reflects differences at all parts of the distribution, and which has a minimum value of zero (representing complete equality) and usually an upper bound of one. These indices usually follow a similar time path, but not always. When that happens, a more nuanced interpretation of the prevailing trends is required. The evolution of wealth inequality this century for the world as a whole is a case in point. Estimates indicate that the share of the top 1% declined until the global financial crisis, then trended upwards until 2016, when it stabilised. The top 1% currently own 45% of global net assets, down slightly from the 46,9% share in 2000. The Gini coefficient and the shares of the top 5% and 10% also declined between 2000 and 2008. But the trends have diverged from the top 1% pattern in 74
SOUTH AFRICAN PROPERTY REVIEW
the post-crisis era. The share of the top 5%, for example, hardly changed, going from 70,6% in 2008 to 70,2% in 2019. This is 5,4 percentage points lower than the value in 2000. And the top 10% and Gini coefficient have continued to trend downwards. The conclusion to be drawn is that – according to the latest data – global wealth gaps have generally narrowed over the past 20 years. The only group countering this trend is the upper tail, accounting for no more than 5% of the world’s population. The suggestion that most people have improved their relative wealth position is reinforced by the observation that the share of the bottom 90% of global wealth holders (portrayed in the graph as the gap between the top 10% share and the 100% upper line) rose from 11,5% in the year 2000 to 18,3% in 2019. The best way to compare levels of wealth is by looking at median figures. A median number simply indicates that 50% of all people have more than that
7. New Zealand: US$116 437 8. Japan: US$110 408 9. Canada: US$107 004 10. Ireland: US$104 842
1. People living in developed countries remain the wealthiest in the world. 2. The Swiss are the richest, with median wealth per adult at US$227 891. 3. Haiti is the poorest country in the world, with an estimated median wealth of only US$214 per adult. 4. Venezuela might be in worse shape, but given the economic instability, researchers could not provide an accurate estimate. 5. There’s no country on the African continent where median wealth exceeds US$10 000 per adult.
