{"id":278345,"date":"2018-10-18T17:41:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T15:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=278345"},"modified":"2018-10-19T12:14:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T10:14:49","slug":"this-is-how-many-dollar-millionaires-there-are-in-south-africa-and-how-many-are-part-of-the-worlds-richest-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/278345\/this-is-how-many-dollar-millionaires-there-are-in-south-africa-and-how-many-are-part-of-the-worlds-richest-1\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how many dollar millionaires there are in South Africa – and how many are part of the world’s richest 1%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit Suisse has published its latest Global Wealth Report for 2018, showing exactly how wealth in South Africa is spread out – and how many local citizens are among the global elite.<\/p>\n

According to the report, aggregate\u00a0global wealth rose 4.6% to $317 trillion in 2018, outpacing population growth (3.2%) – reflecting an increase of $14 trillion.<\/p>\n

While the global\u00a0mean wealth is at $63,100 per adult, this masks considerable variation across countries and regions, the group said.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0Switzerland ($530,240), Australia ($411,060) and the US ($403,970) again head the league table according to wealth per adult.<\/p>\n

The ranking by median wealth per adult favours countries with lower levels of wealth inequality and produces a slightly different table. This year, Australia ($191,450) edged ahead of Switzerland ($183,340) into first place.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, mean wealth per adult is far lower down the list at $22,191 per adult – while median wealth sits at $6,726 per adult.<\/p>\n

Global wealth is projected to rise by nearly 26% over the next five years, reaching $399 trillion by 2023. Emerging markets are responsible for a third of the growth, although they account for just 21% of current wealth.<\/p>\n

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South African wealth<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Credit Suisse, wealth in South Africa is on an ‘uptick’, though it is still struggling to reach previous levels of high growth.<\/p>\n

“Household wealth in South Africa grew strongly prior to the global financial crisis, rising from $9,560 in the year 2000 to $25,280 in 2007. The country has not yet regained that pre-crisis wealth level,” it said.<\/p>\n

“However, since 2015, wealth has risen by 26% in US dollar terms. In part that is due to currency appreciation, but, correcting for the rising rand, there has still been an increase of 13%.<\/p>\n

“This reflects increased real growth in the domestic economy, stimulated partly by the strong rise in global trade seen in recent years.”<\/p>\n

Despite these positive remarks, however, it is still evident that there is massive inequality in the distribution of wealth in the country, where the vast majority of people have a net worth below $10,000 (\u00b1R140,000).<\/p>\n

South Africa has the same fraction of adults with wealth below $10,000 as the world as a whole, ie 64%. However, it also has fewer individuals with wealth above $100,000 (3.2% versus 9.4%).<\/p>\n

South African millionaires<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credit Suisse estimated that 61,000 South Africans are members of the top 1% of global wealth holders, and that 50,000 are US dollar millionaires.<\/p>\n

“The overall level of wealth inequality is high. The country has a wealth Gini coefficient of 81% and the share of the top 1% in total household wealth is 36%,” it said.<\/p>\n

Of the adult population of 35.4 million people, Credit Suisse’s data shows that:<\/p>\n