Sunday, January 25, 2015

Where do the wealthiest 1% live?

As the business and political elite met at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, there was much talk of rising inequality, and many references to the "wealthiest 1%". The phrase conjures up images of billionaires living on private islands - but is that who the 1% really are?
 A report by the charity Oxfam released to coincide with the Davos gathering caused a stir by predicting that the wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world's population.
 It drew on research from the bank Credit Suisse, which estimated total global household wealth in 2014 at $263tn (£175tn). That's wealth, not income. It is calculated as assets minus debt.
 Obviously billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg are part of the 1%.
But who else is?
 According to Credit Suisse, another 47m people - everyone with wealth of $798,000 (£530,000) or more. That includes many people in rich countries who may not regard themselves as particularly wealthy, but who simply own their house outright or have paid off a significant chunk off their mortgage.
 Among them are:
 18m people in the US - the country with more members of the 1% than any other 3.5m people in France 2.9m people in the UK 2.8m in Germany Germany has the biggest economy in Europe.
The reason it has fewer wealthy people - by Credit Suisse's measure - is that it has lower levels of home ownership.
 There are two Asian countries with more than a million people in the top 1%: 4m in Japan 1.6m in China .
The country with the largest proportion of its population in the 1% per capita is Switzerland.
One in 10 Swiss residents - 800,000 out of 8m - have assets worth more than $798,000.
But Credit Suisse's report doesn't tell the whole story.

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