Credit Suisse Research Institute released the official 2018 Global Wealth Report on Thursday, October 18. While the US and China are the richest countries in the world at US$98 trillion and US$52 trillion respectively, the ranking on wealth per adult places Singapore in the ninth spot, the only Asian nation with the distinction of making it in the top ten.
With an average wealth per adult of US$283,120 when it comes to wealth per adult, Singapore, placed ninth in the world. Switzerland finished first with US$530,240, Australia came in second with US$411,060 and the United States snagged the third spot with US$403,970 per adult.
According to the report, Singapore is rich with a current number of 183,737 millionaires. In the last year, the city-states millionaires increased by 11.2 percent as wealth per adult went up 5.3 percent to US$283,120.
A forecast made by Credit Suisse showed that Singapore’s millionaires should grow by 5.5 percent per annum in the next five years to reach 239,640.
Singapore is also home to around 1,000 “crazy rich” Asians – individuals with a very high net worth of more than US$50 million (S$68.9 million) in wealth. The ultra rich’s numbers went up 1.1 percent in the last twelve months.
Singapore has become increasingly more wealthy in the last decade. The astounding rise in wealth per adult, 146 percent since 2000, can be attributed to increases in asset prices, high savings and a climbing exchange rate from the years of 2005 to 2012.
While Singapore’s average debt of US$53,000, which is 16 percent of total assets, is fairly moderate for a high-wealth country, its household wealth experienced a strong increase at 7.4 percent to around US$1.3 trillion.
It also showed that Singapore, where financial assets make up 55 percent of gross household wealth, has a ratio comparable to that of Switzerland, which is the richest per capita economy.
The report noted that population growth was overtaken by aggregate global wealth, which went up by 4.6 percent to US$317 trillion in the last 12 months.
Global wealth per adult grew by 3.2 percent, with global mean wealth hitting a record US$63,100 per adult.
The US and China were the biggest contributors to global wealth with the US adding US$6.3 trillion and China adding US$2.3 trillion, reaching US$98 million and US$52 million respectively.
The Asia-Pacific (including China and India) emerged on top as the largest wealth region, as household wealth increased by 3 percent to more than US$114 trillion.
“Asia-Pacific countries continue to make significant contribution to global high net worth wealth pool, with China, Japan, Australia, Korea and Taiwan making up more than 8.8 million millionaires, representing over 20 per cent of the global total,” said John Woods, Credit Suisse’s chief investment officer for Asia-Pacific.
This 2018 report also discussed global wealth holdings for women, who hold 40% of global wealth, as well as the shrinking wealth gap between the top two tiers and the bottom two tiers of the global wealth pyramid.
Credit Suisse projections for overall global wealth predict an almost 4.7 percent per annum rise over the next five years to reach US$399 trillion by 2023.