The twelfth edition of the Global Wealth Report, published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, shows continued wealth growth. Total global wealth grew by 7.4% and wealth per adult reached another record high of USD 79,952.
Wealth differences between adults widened in 2020 for the world as a whole and also in most countries. The global number of millionaires expanded by 5.2 million to reach 56.1 million. As a result, an adult now needs more than USD 1 million to belong to the global top 1%. The ultra-high net worth (UHNW) group added 24% more members, the highest rate of increase since 2003, Brand Spur reports.
This increase reflects the disconnect between the improvement in the financial and real assets of households and the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. The United States added a third of the global total – 1.7 million new millionaires – a striking increase in the circumstances, but not enough to prevent its share of global millionaires from falling.
The report noted that the rise in wealth inequality was likely not caused by the pandemic itself, nor its direct economic impacts, but was instead a consequence of actions undertaken to mitigate its impact, primarily lower interest rates.
The US accounted for nearly a third of the world’s 5.2 million new millionaires last year, adding 1.7 million to the country’s total, now at 22 million. Germany followed behind, adding another 633,000 millionaires.
The UK – sixth in the rankings of those countries minting the newest rich – added 258,000 millionaires, so that the country now has 2.5 million individuals with assets worth more than $1m.
The rise in the number of millionaires in 2020 was accompanied by a sizable increase in the number of adults in the highest echelons of the wealth distribution. The vast majority of the 56.1 million millionaires in 2020 have wealth between USD 1 million and USD 5 million: 49.1 million or 88% of the HNW group.
In 2020, the UHNW group expanded by 41,420 adults, a rise of 24%, which exceeds
the rate in any year this century except 2003.
Most regions contributed to this rise, with Africa and Latin America the only exceptions. North America, up 21,640 (23%), added the most members. China added fewer members, an extra 9,830. But this represents a 54% increase in the number in 2019. The percentage rises were also substantial in Europe (up 17%) and Asia-Pacific (up 20%).
Another 4.5 million adults (8.1%) are worth between USD 5 million and USD 10 million, and 2.5 million have wealth above USD 10 million. Of the latter, 2.3 million have assets in the USD 10–50 million range, leaving 215,030 ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals with a net worth above USD 50 million at the end of 2020. This is 41,410 more than the 173,620 recorded a year earlier, a rise of 23.9%.
That would be a very high rise in any year, but it is particularly striking in a year experiencing social and economic turmoil. The nature of the policy response to the pandemic has of course been a major influence here.
Wealth creation in 2020 was largely immune to the challenges facing the world due to the actions taken by governments and central banks to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Overall, the countries most affected by the pandemic have not fared worse in terms of wealth creation.
Global wealth is expected to rise a further 39% over the next five years to reach $583tn by 2025, while the number of millionaires is forecast to jump by nearly 50% to 84 million individuals. The group rich enough to be counted as the ultra-high net worth is also expected to expand by nearly 60% to reach 344,000 people.
