The world's richest 1% own nearly half of $263 trillion global wealth

Here’s a stat that may make you choke on your coffee today – the world’s richest 1%, the people who individually are worth more than $798,000, own more than 48% of global wealth.

According to Credit Suisse’ global wealth report, the total global wealth has reached a record of $263 trillion.

According to The Guardian, the annual report states: “Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest decile hold 87% of the world’s wealth, and the top percentile alone account for 48.2% of global assets.”

What do you need to be among the wealthiest citizens in the world? $3,650 including the value of equity in your home, according to the report. To rub shoulders among the top 10%, you need more than $77,000.

The report points out that these figures indicate the “raising global wealth inequality in recent years”. It highlighted that the UK was the only country in the G7 to have recorded rising inequality in the 21st century.

“Only one of them, the UK, recorded rising inequality over the entire period 2000–2014 and only three show an increase after 2007 – France, Italy and the UK,” the report says.

Of the UK, it says: “Nowadays the pattern of wealth distribution in the UK is very typical for a developed economy. Almost 60% of the population has wealth exceeding $100,000 and there are two million US dollar millionaires”.

In response to the findings, Oxfam’s head of inequality Emma Seery said: “These figures give more evidence that inequality is extreme and growing, and that economic recovery following the financial crisis has been skewed in favour of the wealthiest. In poor countries, rising inequality means the difference between children getting the chance to go to school and sick people getting life saving medicines.”

“In the UK, successive governments have failed to get to grips with rising inequality. This report shows that those least able to afford it have paid the price of the financial crisis whilst more wealth has flooded into the coffers of the very richest.”

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