The number of UHNW people – those with assets of more than $50m (£43.7m) – soared in 2021 as the super-rich benefited from rising house prices and booming stock markets, according to a report by the investment firm of Credit Suisse bank. The number of people in the UHNW category has increased by more than 50% in the past two years. The huge increase in the wealth of the richest 0.00004% of the world’s adult population comes as billions of low- and middle-income people – many of whom saw their economies wiped out during the pandemic – struggle to cope with rising food prices and energy’s. “The strong rise in financial assets led to an increase in inequality in 2021,” said the report by Credit Suisse, which helps manage the fortunes of many of the world’s richest people. “The increase in inequality is likely due to the increase in the value of financial assets during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Wealth per adult increased by more than $100,000 in New Zealand last year (Change in wealth per adult (USD), 2021, bigger gains and losses) Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report found that “the recovery in macroeconomic activity in a low-interest environment produced extremely favorable conditions for household wealth growth in 2021.” “We estimate that global wealth totaled $463.6 trillion at the end of 2021, an increase of $41.4 trillion (9.8%),” the report said. “Wealth per adult rose by $6,800 (8.4%) over the year to $87,489, nearly three times the level recorded at the turn of the century.” Anthony Shorrocks, professor of economics and author of the report, said there was “almost an explosion of wealth last year … Probably higher than any other year we’ve ever recorded”. The increase in wealth has not been fairly distributed. The richest 1% of the world’s population increased their share of all global wealth for the second consecutive year to 46%, up from 44% in 2020. The number of US dollar millionaires increased by 5.2 million during 2021 to a total of 62.5 million – just short of the UK population of 67 million. Shorrocks said the number of millionaires was becoming so large that it was becoming “an increasingly irrelevant measure of wealth”. More than a third of millionaires live in the US, home to 24.5 million millionaires, or 39% of the world’s total. The number of US millionaires increased by 2.5 million – almost half of all new millionaires cut worldwide. “This is the largest increase in the number of millionaires recorded for any country in any year this century and reinforces the rapid increase in the number of millionaires seen in the US since 2016,” the report said. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. China is in second place, with 10% of the world’s millionaires, ahead of Japan with 5.4%, the United Kingdom (4.6%) and France (4.5%). Switzerland was once again named the richest country in terms of average wealth per adult at $700,000, ahead of the US at $579,000. However, the disparities in these countries are highlighted when looking at average wealth per adult. Switzerland falls to sixth place with an average wealth of $168,000 and the US falls to 18th place with $93,000. Australia tops the median wealth chart at $274,000. UK adults have an average wealth of $309,000 (14th place) and a median wealth of $142,000 (ninth place). The country with the biggest jump in average wealth was New Zealand, which saw an average increase of $114,000 to $472,000.
