Global financial group Credit Suisse has published its latest Global Wealth Report for 2019, showing that South Africans have become poorer over the last decade.<\/p>\n
According to Credit Suisse, household wealth in South Africa grew strongly prior to the global financial crisis, rising from US$9,560 in the year 2000 to US$25,280 in 2007 on a per-adult basis.<\/p>\n
The country exceeded its 2007 wealth level for a single year in 2010 but mean wealth has declined by US$5,000 since then, leaving it with a wealth per adult of US$21,380 in mid-2019.<\/p>\n
“This is largely due to currency depreciation, as the rand has lost half its value since 2010,” the group said.<\/p>\n
“In local currency units, wealth per adult rose 55.9% from 2010 to 2019, although after correcting for inflation there was a fall of 0.1%, i.e. virtually no change.”<\/p>\n
The group recorded a decline in total wealth held by the adult population in 2019 while also seeing declines in the number of wealthy individuals in the country.<\/p>\n
65% of adults have wealth below US$10,000, which is higher than the 58% rate for the world as a whole. However, the country also has fewer individuals with wealth above US$100,000 \u2013 3.2% versus 10.6%.<\/p>\n
“Nevertheless, we estimate that 51,000 South Africans are members of the top 1% of global wealth holders and that 46,000 are USD millionaires.<\/p>\n
“The overall level of wealth inequality is high. South Africa has a wealth Gini coefficient of 81% and the share of the top 1% in total household wealth is 35%,” the group said.<\/p>\n
51,000 South Africans in the global 1% is a decline of 10,000 people from 61,000 recorded in 2018.<\/p>\n
Using Credit Suisse’s data, we can determine that the average one-percenter is worth around $750,000 (R11 million)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n South Africa has an adult population of 36 million people, carrying a total wealth of $770 billion (\u00b1R11.3 trillion).<\/p>\n The top 1% (360,000 people) account for 35% of this wealth ($265.9 billion), averaging at $748,661 per person (R10.99 million).<\/p>\n It’s not only the number of global one-percenters in South Africa that have declined: South Africa has also lost dollar millionaires, and the country’s middle class is also under pressure.<\/p>\n Globally speaking, the middle-class band of wealth is between $10,000 (R147,000) and $100,000 (R1.47 million) – in South Africa, approximately 32.2% of the adult population fall into this category, representing about 11.6 million adults.<\/p>\n Worryingly, this points to South Africa’s middle class shrinking over the last year, in global terms, having dropped from 33.1% of the population in 2018 (11.72 million adults).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the proportion of the population with under US$10,000 in wealth has grown from 63.7% of the adult population (22.6 million people) to 64.6% of the adult population (23.3 million people).<\/p>\n In terms of dollar millionaires (those with a net worth above R14.7 million), South Africa is home to 46,000, Credit Suisse said. However, this is down from the 50,000 dollar millionaires recorded in 2018.<\/p>\n Top 1% earnings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\n Category<\/th>\n Number of adults<\/th>\n % of wealth<\/th>\n Wealth in USD<\/th>\n Average wealth per person<\/th>\n ZAR<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Top 1%<\/td>\n 360 270<\/td>\n 35%<\/td>\n $286.1 billion<\/td>\n $748 661<\/td>\n R10.99 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n