Pioneering study shows richest 2 percent own half world wealth

5-Dec-2006
United Nations University

tony-shorrocks

Tony Shorrocks

rich-poorThe richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER).

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.

The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/unu-pss120106.php

Example coverage

BBC click here

Financial Times, click here

The Guardian, click here

United Press International, click here

Agence France Presse, click here