The rich are getting richer, millionaire population soars to 16 million

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Qatar has the highest density of millionaire households, according to a new study from Boston Consulting Group. Pictured here, the skyline of Doha, Qatar.
Qatar has the highest density of millionaire households, according to a new study from Boston Consulting Group. Pictured here, the skyline of Doha, Qatar.

The world added 2.6 million millionaire households last year, showing that the rich are getting richer—and far more numerous, according to a report released Monday.

The total number of millionaire households in the world rose 19 percent last year, to 16.3 million households, according to Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth report. Millionaire households represent 1.1 percent of all households globally.

The U.S. added the most millionaire households and has the highest total, with a gain of 1.1 million households last year. That brings the total to 7.135 million.

China’s millionaire population grew to 2.4 million last year from 1.5 million in 2012. But Japan’s millionaire population fell by 300,000 to 1.2 million last year, driven mainly by the falling value of the yen versus the dollar.

“The key challenge in developed economies is how to make the most of a large existing asset base amid volatile growth patterns,” said Brent Beardsley, a BCG senior partner and a co-author of the report. “The task in the developing economies is to attract a sizable share of the new wealth being created there. Overall, the battle for assets and market share will become increasingly intense in the run-up to 2020.”

Qatar had the highest density of millionaires—175 out of every 1,000 households in Qatar are millionaires. Switzerland ranked second in millionaire density (127 per 1,000 households), followed by Singapore (with 100 for every 1,000 households).

The U.S. also had the most centimillionaires (those worth $100 million or more), with 4,754 households. But Hong Kong had the highest density of centimillionaires, with 16.8 per 1,000 households.

Global financial wealth in the world rose 14.6 percent last year, to $152 trillion—nearly double the rate of growth in 2012. It’s expected to grow at least 5 percent a year over the next five years to $198 trillion, with new wealth creation (rather than returns on existing wealth) driving two-thirds of the growth.

BCG defines millionaire household wealth as investible assets—cash, deposits and securities. It doesn’t include less liquid assets like real estate, business ownership, collectibles and luxury goods.

In the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, wealth grew 31 percent, adding more than $8 trillion in 2013. North American wealth grew 16 percent, adding $7 trillion, and Western European wealth rose 5.2 percent, adding $5 trillion.

Stocks were the biggest driver of global wealth last year, the report said, with the total wealth held in equities surging by 28 percent.

NBC

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27 responses to “The rich are getting richer, millionaire population soars to 16 million”

  1. IraniAngel Avatar
    IraniAngel

    define rich. having billions of $$$ on ur bank account doesnt make u rich 😉

    1. AkhouManUki Avatar
      AkhouManUki

      Exactly right! They may be financially rich, but chances are they lack all of the important stuff that really makes you “rich”

      1. IraniAngel Avatar
        IraniAngel

        judging by some hollywood movies rich ppl live a much more complicated life than not so rich ppl.

        1. MekensehParty Avatar
          MekensehParty

          Judging by how much Hollywood Movies influence you, you certainly must be living a complicated life 🙂

          1. AkhouManUki Avatar
            AkhouManUki

            Oh come on, you can’t tell me you don’t go around acting like a hobbit from lord of the rings. That’s what everyone does. It’s the in thing.

          2. IraniAngel Avatar
            IraniAngel

            lord of the rings???? really??? eb3ad menni ya walad!! lol

          3. AkhouManUki Avatar
            AkhouManUki

            khalas ya angel – if you’re not into hobbits, I don’t think we can be in a relationship any longer 😉

          4. IraniAngel Avatar
            IraniAngel

            no im the one who breaks up wid u! hhhhhhh what we had is broken thx to ur obsession wid this geeky stuff. u obviously love the geeky stuff more than u love me 🙂 haida mish l 7ob l 7a2y2y looool

          5. AkhouManUki Avatar
            AkhouManUki

            wow, I see how it is. I was just kidding, and now you want to pull out the dagger! Come on ya angel, we had such a good thing going.

          6. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            “in” where?
            All of America? certainly not
            a neighborhood in California, maybe

          7. AkhouManUki Avatar
            AkhouManUki

            You need to get out more my broom brother.

      2. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        True enough … one can be happy with the important ‘feeling’ things while having ‘enough’ to put on a table every day in a room with a roof that doesn’t leak. One can admit a ‘level of incompetence’ (Peter Principal) and be quite happy in the life one is capable of living in, if certain passions like jealousy don’t interfere.
        Let’s call that a minimum.
        Where oh where in ALL the world of wonderfully corrupt ‘religions’ are there Massively Rich people making sure everyone HAS that minimum??
        Who’s passing out condoms with the right concept?
        War-Games seem to be a priority ….

        1. AkhouManUki Avatar
          AkhouManUki

          Hold on, so in order for rich people to be truly rich, they need to give away free condoms? I think that logic is outstanding.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Akhou …. It wasn’t the condums, but the concept.
            2.3 kids per family, max – if you can afford any. 🙂
            Mind you, as the Chinese found, even one was too much to reverse the gains after 5 billion …. if various pogroms were also stopped. Still, there is future potential, when all the males who can’t find females now, age and kick off.

          2. AkhouManUki Avatar
            AkhouManUki

            We have the opposite problem in Lebanon – too many women, not enough men. For different reasons obviously…

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            And if you actually allowed them to work, you’d have a better country.
            I think the reasons are basically the same. Everyone wants a son … Chinese floated female births down the Yellow River … Lebanon sends males to war … in both cases, eliminations. :-)))
            Hmmm … Ladies .. I hear Chinese guys are easily controlled. 😉

        2. IraniAngel Avatar
          IraniAngel

          the sad part is that if u ask a billionaire if he/she considers him/herself rich he/she dares to say no!
          un-friggin-beilevable!

  2. MOMOMOMAGABA Avatar
    MOMOMOMAGABA

    And the poor are getting poorer, what a lovely world we live in.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Hi MOMOMO
      But every time one of them wins, at the lotteries they stand around in a store to spend the food money on for years, there’s another millionaire. :-)))
      The human greed factor is heavy in us still.
      Actually heard a fair explanation for at least part of this ‘Middle-Income-Loss’ problem – where in ‘the west’ at least, 10% of the jobs in that pay-range have simply disappeared to either computers or robots. Interestingly too, it is women who are more likely to move up to the higher pay jobs, and men to the lower. Over time, this is a factor due to better-educated women, of course, although I’d be among to first to agree they have more ‘smarts’ on the average – and seemingly for those jobs ranked higher – Middle Management or certain Techno things such as Medicine and Research. Men move up into those as well.
      Anyone not able or willing to grab some level of ability to use a computer, when they can, is going to be looking at a decreasing number of available jobs. And when robots are building things like cars, there are not many more places than before for inspectors and testers or the ‘specialist’ for optional extras installing, or the management of them. At the bottom end, the people running tow-motors to supply ‘the line’ are being replaced by robots too.
      Auto industry is only one example. ‘Manufacturing’ in general has always been quick to replace humans, who want a living wage and some benefits, with some kind of automation – no matter how much it costs to set it up. They can deduct that from taxes while claiming they bring ‘work’ to the people – which usually means the politicians.
      And it’s happening even in places where they can grab the cheapest labour – the uneducated masses will suffer more in future.
      SOCIETY IN GENERAL, latching onto new and wonderful work-saver-devices, also generally forgot to factor in some method of compensation for making babies who can never catch up to the basic needs of ‘life without a job’ … and the teeming masses, believing they MUST reproduce, only continue to create more suffering masses, or slogs in low-paid work.

      1. Please be nice 5th and dont make fun of people that studder!! Just call him Mo! :)P

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          Hohoho .. nasty .. Hi Geo. 🙂
          Nice to see you’re kicking around still. 😉

        2. Just call him MO? Ha ha ha him?

        3. MOMOMOMAGABA Avatar
          MOMOMOMAGABA

          Him or it?

  3. AkhouManUki Avatar
    AkhouManUki

    A wise man once said that the only thing you get to keep in this life is what you give. I would love to know how much these “rich” people give. If our fellow (disgraced) patriot Carlos Slim Helou is an example, it’s a shame to see people who think amassing large amounts of money or toys somehow equates to happiness and fulfillment.

    Give and you will set yourself free!

    1. arzatna1 Avatar
      arzatna1

      “Charity doesn’t solve poverty. How much charity has been done in the past years, trillions of dollars” Helou was quoted as saying in 2010 . “It’s more important to put all your resources and your experience to work,” he added.

      While Warren Buffett who overtook Helou this year as the second richest man in the world announced in 2006 that he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July that year most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Charity Foundation.

      According to several reports Helou visited Lebanon in 2010 and stayed in the royal suite of the fanciest hotel in Beirut, hired a presidential convoy and left skipping to pay the bills of 5 million dollars over 5 days stays in Lebanon. Then, the bankrupted Government of Lebanon thanked him for his Legendary visit and payed his bills from the Lebanese people tax.

  4. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    I don’t think the title is correct, it doesn’t talk about the rich getting richer but rather that there are more rich people in the world. I don’t see how this could be a bad sign unless you’re a communist and hate that capitalism is actually working.

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