South Africa’s ultra rich – by the numbers
New research shows the extent of wealth among South Africa’s richest citizens, which includes seven dollar billionaires.
According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2015, South Africa has 43,417 very wealthy citizens – net wealth between US$1 million (R13.3 million) and US$5 million (R66.5 million).
Wealth is defined as the value of assets including stock market investments and property, excluding debt.
The bank’s data finds that the world has 123,800 ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals – wealth exceeding US$50 million.
As many as 3,719 South Africans are bracketed in the US$5 million to US$10 million range (R133 million).
2,181 wealthy locals fit into the US$10 million to US$50 million (R665 million) range, and 195 are in the US$50 million to US$100 million (R1.33 billion) range.
That figure drops down to 119 for those individuals with wealth between US$100 million to US$500 million (R6.65 billion) range, and to 10 individuals with wealth exceeding US$500 million, to US$1 billion.
Currently, South Africa has seven dollar billionaires – R13.3 billion.
Read: 10 things you should know about South Africa’s ultra-rich
The US leads the world when it comes to millionaires, with 15.656 million of them. It has 13.4 million citizens who are dollar millionaires, with 513 dollar billionaires. The UK is second for dollar millionaires, with 2.36 million, followed by Japan, France, and Germany.
China, which is sixth on the millionaire list, has the second most dollar billionaires, with 218, followed by Russia, with 90, Switzerland, with 70, India with 67, and Hong Kong (64).
Counting the wealthiest people in the world
The data found that the world’s richest 10% hold 87.7% of global wealth.
Credit Suisse noted that $3,210 (R43,099) would put an individual in the richest half of the world, while just under a million rand – $68,800 (R923,443) would get you into the top 10%.
In order to crack the top 1%, a person would require $759,900 (R10.2 million). South Africa has more than 70,000 members who fit into this category.
The US has more than 20 million people inside the top 1%, followed by the UK, with 3.6 million, and China, with 1.9 million.
The number of Chinese dollar millionaires is expected to reach 2.3 million by 2020, a 74% increase compared to today.
Globally the number of dollar millionaires is set to soar by 46% over the next five years, to a total of 49.3 million adults. This group of dollar millionaires will still only account for 0.7 percent of the world’s adult population.
More on wealth in SA
What it takes to be in the richest 1% of the world
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