SINGAPORE: On Wednesday (Aug 28), a Reddit user shared an infographic that showed that in terms of average wealth per person, Singapore ranks eighth in the world.
The city-state did not make it to the top ten, however, when it comes to median wealth, according to data from the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024. It is still in the top 25, having ranked 18th.
The infographic explains that average wealth refers to the total wealth of a nation divided by its adult population. Figures, however, can be skewed by the highs and lows on either end, including, for example, how many billionaires a country has.
Read related: Wealth inequality in Singapore surpasses other APAC nations
Median wealth, on the other hand, is defined as the value dividing the wealth of a population in half. It shows how half of the population has more and how half has less.
In Singapore, the average wealth is US$397,700 (S$517,383) but the median wealth is US$104,959 (S$136,543).
Commenting on the infographic, many Reddit users said that data from Singapore points to wealth inequality in the city-state,
One summarized it by writing, “Tl:dr. Ultra rich is rich rich, while low to middle class fight it out for survival.”
Another wondered if Singapore’s migrant workers were included in its data, adding “If they’re not included, it really masks how much worse wealth inequality in Singapore actually is.”
A Reddit user wrote that realizing that Singapore is not in the top ten list for median wealth makes the city-state’s ranking for average wealth “look especially bad.”
“That means that our wealth inequality is huge,” they added.
“This means that Singapore’s wealth is very skewed. I.e. there are many high-net-worth people in Singapore,” another observed.
The UBS report points out that Singapore’s average wealth growth has grown by a substantial 116 per cent since 2008 but has declined by 2 per cent for median wealth during this time.
It also shows that wealth inequality in Singapore has gone up by 22.9 per cent, the highest among all the countries in the report.
Furthermore, most of the rise in wealth has been to the advantage of the upper-income brackets, which have seen faster growth than lower-income backers.
When it comes to the proportion of USD millionaires per capita, Luxembourg ranks highest, where more than 16 per cent of adults are USD millionaires. In Singapore, the figure is just over 6.5 per cent, according to UBS’ report. /TISG
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