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Luxury yacht in the port of Hamburg: more wealth
Photo: IMAGO/Achim Duwentäster / IMAGO/teamwork
The number of millionaires worldwide is growing - at least that is what a new wealth study by the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse suggests.
According to this, the number of so-called dollar millionaires rose by almost 5.2 million to almost 62.5 million people in 2021 compared to the previous year thanks to booming stock markets and rising real estate prices.
The economists at the bank, who have been presenting the Global Wealth Report every year since 2010, expect the rich club to grow to more than 87 million in the next five years.
"Although some of the exceptional wealth gains of the last year are likely to be partially reversed in 2022 and 2023 as several countries grapple with slower growth or even recession, our five-year forecast projects wealth growth to continue," said Nannette Hechler- Fayd'herbe, Head of Economics & Research.
At the end of last year, by far the most dollar millionaires continued to live in the USA (almost 24.5 million people – up 2.49 million on the previous year).
According to the analysis, Germany had a little less than 2.7 million dollar millionaires at the end of 2021.
According to the latest data, that was 58,000 fewer than a year earlier – which, however, is also likely to be due to the weak euro exchange rate.
According to the calculations, the global wealth of private households increased by 9.8 percent to 463.6 trillion dollars within a year.
According to this, people in Germany had total assets of 17.5 trillion dollars at the end of 2021.
Wealth losses have almost always been linked to currency depreciation against the US dollar, said economist Anthony Shorrocks, who authored the report.
He added: “An analysis of median wealth within individual countries and at the global level shows that global wealth inequality has declined this century due to the faster pace of growth in emerging markets.
Average households have therefore been able to accumulate wealth over the past two decades.« The median is the value in the middle of a data series ordered by size.
In contrast to other wealth studies, such as those by the Deutsche Bundesbank, which add up cash, bank deposits, securities and claims against insurance companies, Credit Suisse also takes real estate into account in its calculations.
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