A new report from Credit Suisse shows that the richest one per cent of people on Earth own about half of the world’s total wealth. Yeah, you read that right.
From The Guardian:
According to the Credit Suisse global wealth report (pdf), a person needs just $US3,650 — including the value of equity in their home — to be among the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, more than $US77,000 is required to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders, and $US798,000 to belong to the top 1%.
“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,” said the annual report, now in its fifth year.
The report says that we’re seeing wealth inequality get worse around the world, and that things were relatively less terrible before the financial crisis of 2007-08:
These findings hint at rising global wealth inequality in recent years. However, our results also suggest that the reverse trend happened in the run up to the financial crisis, with median wealth rising faster than the minimum wealth of the top percentile groups in the period from 2000 to 2007.
So, there you go. Have a splendid day everybody!
Picture: Unnamed homeless woman in Manhattan via Getty Images