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UNU-WIDER - December 2006

Pioneering Study Shows Richest Two Percent Own Half World Wealth

The World Distribution of Household Wealth       full text

James B. Davies, Susanna Sandstrom, Anthony Shorrocks, and Edward N. Wolff

5 December 2006

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER). Full text here

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.

The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

The UNU-WIDER study is the first of its kind to cover all countries in the world and all major components of household wealth, including financial assets and debts, land, buildings and other tangible property.

‘One should be clear about what is meant by “wealth”,’ say co-authors James Davies of the University of Western Ontario, Anthony Shorrocks and Susanna Sandstrom of UNU-WIDER, and Edward Wolff of New York University. ‘In everyday conversation the term “wealth” often signifies little more than “money income”. On other occasions economists use “wealth” to refer to the value of all household resources, including human capabilities.’

‘We use the term in its long-established sense of net worth: the value of physical and financial assets less debts. In this respect, wealth represents the ownership of capital. Although capital is only one part of personal resources, it is widely believed to have a disproportionate impact on household wellbeing and economic success, and more broadly on economic development and growth.’

Wealth levels across countries

Using currency exchange rates, global household wealth amounted to $125 trillion in the year 2000, equivalent to roughly three times the value of total global production (GDP) or to $20,500 per person. Adjusting for differences in the cost-of-living across nations raises the value of wealth to $26,000 per capita when measured in terms of purchasing power parity dollars (PPP$).

The world map shows per capita wealth of different countries.

  Average wealth amounted to $144,000 per person in the USA in year 2000, and $181,000 in Japan. Lower down among countries with wealth data are India, with per capita assets of $1,100, and Indonesia with $1,400 per capita.

Per capita wealth levels vary widely across countries. Even within the group of high-income OECD nations the range includes $37,000 for New Zealand and $70,000 for Denmark and $127,000 for the UK.

Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and high income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90% of total world wealth. (Figure 2)

Although North America has only 6% of the world adult population, it accounts for 34% of household wealth. Europe and high income Asia-Pacific countries also own disproportionate amounts of wealth. In contrast, the overall share of wealth owned by people in Africa, China, India, and other lower income countries in Asia is considerably less than their population share, sometimes by a factor of more than ten. 

(Figure3)

The study finds wealth to be more unequally distributed than income across countries. High income countries tend to have a bigger share of world wealth than of world GDP. The reverse is true of middle- and low-income nations. However, there are exceptions to this rule, for example the Nordic region and transition countries like the Czech Republic and Poland.

The authors of the UNU-WIDER study explain that in Eastern European countries ‘private wealth is on the rise, but has still not reached very high levels. Assets like private pensions and life insurance are held by relatively few households. In the Nordic countries, the social security system provides generous public pensions that may depress wealth accumulation.’

World wealth inequality

The concentration of wealth within countries varies significantly but is generally high. The share of the top 10% ranges from around 40% in China to 70% in the United States, and higher still in other countries.

The Gini value, which measures inequality on a scale from zero to one, gives numbers in the range from 35% to 45% for income inequality in most countries. In contrast, Gini values for wealth inequality are usually between 65% and 75%, and sometimes exceed 80%.

Two high wealth economies, Japan and the United States, show very different patterns of wealth inequality, with Japan having a wealth Gini of 55% and the USA a wealth Gini of around 80%.

Wealth inequality for the world as a whole is higher still. The study estimates that the global wealth Gini for adults is 89%. The same degree of inequality would be obtained if one person in a group of ten takes 99% of the total pie and the other nine share the remaining 1%.

Where do the world’s wealthy live?

According to the study, almost all of the world’s richest individuals live in North America, Europe, and rich Asia-Pacific countries. Each of these groups of countries contribute about one third of the members of the world’s wealthiest 10%. 

(Figure 4)

China occupies much of the middle third of the global wealth distribution, while India, Africa, and low-income Asian countries dominate the bottom third.

For all developing regions of the world, the share of population exceeds the share of global wealth, which in turn exceeds the share of members of the wealthiest groups. (Figure 3)

A small number of countries account for most of the wealthiest 10% in the world. One-quarter are Americans and another 20% are Japanese.

(Figure 5)

These two countries feature even more strongly among the richest 1% of individuals in the world, with 37% residing in the USA and 27% in Japan. 

(Figure 6)

According to Anthony Shorrocks, a country’s representation in the rich person’s club depends on three factors: the size of the population, average wealth, and wealth inequality.

‘The USA and Japan stand out’, he says, ‘because they have large populations and high average wealth. Although Switzerland and Luxembourg have high average wealth, their populations are small. China on the other hand fails to feature strongly among the super-rich because average wealth is modest and wealth is evenly spread by international standards. However, China is already likely to have more wealthy residents than our data reveals for the year 2000, and membership of the super-rich seems set to rise fast in the next decade.’

Composition of household wealth

The UNU-WIDER study shows major international differences in the composition of assets, resulting from different influences on household behaviour such as market structure, regulation, and cultural preferences.

Real property, particularly land and farm assets, are more important in less developed countries. (Figure 7) This reflects not only the greater importance of agriculture, but also immature financial institutions.

 

The study also reveals striking differences in the types of financial assets owned. Savings accounts feature strongly in transition economies and in some rich Asian countries, while share-holdings and other types of financial assets are more evident in rich countries in the West. 

According to the authors of the UNU-WIDER study, savings accounts tend to be favoured in Asian countries because ‘there appears to be a strong preference for liquidity and a lack of confidence in financial markets. Other types of financial assets are more prominent in countries like the UK and USA which have well developed financial sectors and which rely heavily on private pensions.’

Surprisingly, household debt is relatively unimportant in poor countries. As the authors of the study point out: ‘While many poor people in poor countries are in debt, their debts are relatively small in total. This is mainly due to the absence of financial institutions that allow households to incur large mortgage and consumer debts, as is increasingly the situation in rich countries’

The authors go on to note that ‘many people in high-income countries have negative net worth and—somewhat paradoxically—are among the poorest people in the world in terms of household wealth.’

Authors of The World Distribution of Household Wealth, December 2006

James Davies is a Professor, and the RBC Financial Group Fellow, in the Department of Economics at the University of Western Ontario. He is the Director of the UNU-WIDER project on Personal Assets from a Global Perspective. jdavies@uwo.ca

Susanna Sandström is a Research Associate at UNU-WIDER. She has previously held positions at the Luxemburg Income Study and Statistics Finland. sandstrom@wider.unu.edu

Anthony Shorrocks is the Director of WIDER and has previously held positions at the LSE and University of Essex. shorrocks@wider.unu.edu

Edward Wolff is Professor of Economics, New York University, Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research. edward.wolff@nyu.edu

To attend the launch, please register:

In London:

Francesca Pompili, Media Services Manager
The Foreign Press Association
11 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AJ
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7930 0445
E-mail: francescapompili@foreign-press.org.uk

In New York:

United Nations Secretariat
Press Room S-226
46 Street & 1 Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Jin Zhang, Programme Assistant
United Nations University office in NY
Telephone: +1-212-963-6387
E-mail: jin@ony.unu.edu


Figures:

Figure 1 World Wealth Levels in Year 2000
Figure 2 Regional Wealth Shares
Figure 3 Population and Wealth Shares by Region
Figure 4 Regional Composition of Global Wealth Distribution
Figure 5 Percentage Membership of Wealthiest 10%
Figure 6 Percentage Membership of Wealthiest 1%
Figure 7 Asset Composition in Selected Countries
Figure 8 Composition of Financial Wealth in Selected Countries

For additional details on this event , please contact Ara Kazandjian: ara@wider.unu.edu

PRESS RELEASE

In PDF English (254 KB), French (260 KB), and Spanish (160 KB)

Links to high resolution figures are at the end of this press release

Download the full study: WIDER WDHW (PDF 1,167KB), Powerpoint presentation (PDF 833KB), Tables in Excel (160KB)

A new study on The World Distribution of Household Wealth by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) launched on Tuesday 5 December 2006. Photogallery.: Related papers from this project.

In London at The Foreign Press Association (13:00 GMT)

In New York at the United Nations Secretariat Press Room S-226 (1:00 pm EST)

The Director of UNU-WIDER Anthony Shorrocks and co-authors James Davies, Susanna Sandström, and Edward Wolff are available for advance phone interviews; please use the contacts below to schedule a time.

Media Contacts:

Ara Kazandjian:+358-9-615-99-210; +358-50-351-0325; ara@wider.unu.edu

Terry Collins: +1-416-538-8712; +1-416-878-8712; terrycollins@rogers.com

 

Publications from this project availble for download:

RP2007/27 John Muellbauer: Housing and Personal Wealth in a Global Context (PDF 226KB)

RP2007/17 Markus Jäntti and Eva Sierminska: Survey Estimates of Wealth Holdings in OECD Countries: Evidence on the Level and Distribution across Selected Countries (PDF 120KB)

RP2007/03 Shi Li and Renwei Zhao: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth in China, 1995-2002 (PDF 230KB)

RP2007/02 Ruslan Yemtsov: Housing Privatization and Household Wealth in Transition (PDF 220KB)

RP2006/151 Anthony B. Atkinson: Concentration among the Rich (PDF 310KB)

RP2006/150 James C. MacGee: Land Titles, Credit Markets and Wealth Distributions (PDF 176KB)

RP2006/145 Christian Rogg: Asset Portfolios in Africa: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia (PDF 186KB)

RP2006/138 Ronelle Burger, Frikkie Booysen, Servaas van der Berg, and Michael von Maltitz: Marketable Wealth in a Poor African Country: Using an index of consumer durables to investigate wealth accumulation by households in Ghana (PDF 418KB)

RP2006/137 Juliano Assunção: Land Reform and Landholdings in Brazil (PDF 465KB)

RP2006/130 Sangeeta Pratap and Erwan Quintin: The Informal Sector in Developing Countries: Output, Assets and Employment (PDF 184KB)

RP2006/120 Sergei Guriev and Andrei Rachinsky: The Evolution of Personal Wealth in the Former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe (PDF 217KB)

RP2006/116 S. Subramanian and D. Jayaraj: The Distribution of Household Wealth in India (PDF 267KB)

RP2006/115 Carmen Diana Deere and Cheryl R. Doss: Gender and the Distribution of Wealth in Developing Countries (PDF 147KB)

RP2006/114 Florencia Torche and Seymour Spilerman: Household Wealth in Latin America (PDF 321KB)

RP2006/103 Henry Ohlsson, Jesper Roine, and Daniel Waldenström: Long-Run Changes in the Concentration of Wealth: An Overview of Recent Findings (PDF 292KB)

RP2006/99 Janine Aron, John Muellbauer, and Johan Prinsloo: Estimating the Balance Sheet of the Personal Sector in an Emerging Market Country: South Africa 1975-2003 (PDF 230KB)

RP2006/91 Patrick Honohan: Household Financial Assets in the Process of Development (PDF 209KB)