Wealthiest nations of the world

Despite all the bad economic news coming out of the developed world, the fact remains that they are way ahead of the emerging nations. The chart shows the wealthiest nations in terms of a share in world wealth. As expected, the US and Western European nations lead the pack.

At the top of the wealth pyramid, there are over 1,000 billionaires globally, of which 245 are in Asia Pacific, 230 are in Europe and 500 are in North America. Moving down the wealth pyramid, there are 80,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (average wealth per adult above USD 50 million). Of the 24 million other high-net-worth individuals (average wealth per adult of USD 1 million to USD 50 million), just over 800,000 are in China, around 170,000 are in India and over four million are in the rest of Asia Pacific. Below this, more than 330 million individuals have average wealth per adult of USD 100,000 to USD 1 million.

Switzerland and Norway have emerged as the richest nations in the world in terms of average wealth per adult, which stands at USD 372,692 and USD, 326,530 respectively. They are followed by Australia, which is in third place with average wealth per adult of USD 320,909 and Singapore with average wealth per adult of USD 255,488. Figures for Australia and Singapore have both doubled in the last decade.

At the base of the wealth pyramid there are three billion people with average wealth per adult of below USD 10,000, of which 1.1 billion own less than USD 1,000 and 307 million are in India. Some 2.5 billion people are as yet unbanked. As the wealth of this significant group grows, it will both require and fuel the creation of new financial services. Two emerging trends are new e-payment systems and microfinance (to date, 154 million people globally use microfinance) which have thrived in countries where banking systems have been either underdeveloped or more oriented towards the rich. These innovations have enabled the creation of new wealth in countries such as Mexico, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Emerging wealth

In the Middle East, The Credit Suisse Research Institute estimates that average wealth per adult in Qatar stands at USD 109,369, which is higher than that of Korea, Greece, Portugal and Spain, and is only just below the European average. Similarly, wealth per adult for the United Arab Emirates has reached USD 150,000, which is higher than that of the Netherlands.

China stands out as the third-largest wealth generator in the world, with total household wealth of USD 16.5 trillion, behind only the US (USD 54.6 trillion) and Japan (USD 21.0 trillion). If historic growth trends continue, total household wealth in China could rise 111% to USD 35 trillion by 2015, outstripping Japan to become the second highest in the world.

Wealth has also surged in other emerging markets in Asia Pacific, especially India and Indonesia. The total wealth of India has tripled in a decade to USD 3.5 trillion while Indonesia’s has grown five-fold to USD 1.8 trillion. By 2015, based on current trends, India’s wealth could nearly double to USD 6.4 trillion while Indonesia’s could grow as impressively, taking it to over USD 3.0 trillion.