Economics - General

Are you rich?

In the Economist’s December 9th issue, the magazine reviews (“The wealth of nations…“) a World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) effort to measure how personal wealth (i.e.: financial assets, real estate, consumer durables, livestock) was distributed throughout the world. If you have just over $2000 in net assets to your name, you can be considered in the richer half of the world.

Minimum Wealth Required to be in:
Top 50% $2,161
Top 40% $3,517
Top 30% $6,318
Top 20% $14,169
Top 10% $61,041
Top 5% $150,145
Top 1% $514,512

An interesting point made by the article is that “the bottom half of Swedes have a collective net worth of less than zero.” These estimates, however, do not take into account the implicit liability most developed governments have to pay some health care and pension benefits for their citizens.

2 Comments

  1. I have to agree with that. It all depends on where you live in the world. If you think you’re poor, guess again. Seeing that chart makes me happy to enjoy what I have

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