Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Australia tops median household wealth

Global wealth

Credit Suisse released its Global Wealth Report for 2021.

With a median net wealth per adult of US$238k Aussie households were measured to be the wealthiest in the world in 2020, ranking ahead of Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, and all the rest.


Source: Credit Suisse

Australia's mean wealth per adult was also exceptionally high at US$439k, ranking behind only Switzerland, the U.S., and Hong Kong.

Switzerland and Australia saw the biggest increase in wealth over the past year, while the composition of Aussie household wealth is essentially unchanged over the past two decades. 

Australia's housing stock is overwhelmingly and increasingly owned by private households, with only a small share of dwellings accounted for by public housing, in contrast to elsewhere. 

This also partly accounts for the relatively large stock of household debt in Australia. 

The number of Aussie millionaires increased from 1.4 million to 1.8 million in 2020 (and is expected to increase to 3.1 million by 2025), as asset prices rise.

Only Switzerland had a great density of millionaires than Australia (Monaco probably does too, if anyone knew how to measure those figures).