According to Credit Suisse’s just released wealth report, Earth’s richest 1% own half of the world’s wealth, leaving the other 50% of wealth to the remaining 99%.
This is an 8% jump from 2008 when the top 1% owned only 42.5%. It highlights the growing trend towards the 1% owning 66% of the world’s wealth by 2030. One of the main sources driving the growing gap of inequality is tax-evading by rich individuals.
“The share of the top 1% has been on an upward path ever since [the 2008 crisis], passing the 2000 level in 2013 and achieving new peaks every year thereafter…The number of millionaires, which fell in 2008, recovered fast after the financial crisis, and is now nearly three times the 2000 figure,” Suisse’s report said.
On the other side of things, Earth’s 3.5 billion poorest adults have assets averaging less than just $10,000. This is 70% of the world’s working-age population and is only 2.7% of our world’s wealth. 90% of adults in India and Africa have individual net worths of less than $10,000 each.
Two-fifths of millionaires reside in the US. The next highest is Japan with 7%, and then UK with 6%.
“The number of millionaires has increased by 170% [since 2000], while the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) has risen five-fold, making them by far the fastest-growing group of wealth-holders,” according to the report.
Most UHNWIs came to status in US, and 22% are coming from emerging economies such as China.
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