The world's total wealth soared by 7.4% to hit $418.3 trillion (£271tn) in 2020, despite the economic havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report. Between January and March 2020, the total sum of the money in the world decreased by 4.4%, but fast responses to the global health crisis by governments and banks, which prompted the quick recovery of financial markets, helped the world’s wealth to recover, and then some. Wealth per adult grew by 6% in 2020, giving the average global citizen a record-high net worth of $79,952 (£51.8k). But some countries have much richer populations than others.
Click or scroll through to discover which countries have the wealthiest people, according to average wealth per adult. All dollar values represent US dollars.
Adults living in Taiwan are the fourth-richest of any Asian nation, according to the Global Wealth Report 2021. Average wealth has grown by $15,270 (£11k) per person since the 2019 report, giving those living in the province an approximate net worth of $238,860 (£171.5k) per adult. Taiwan has suffered minimal impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, and unlike China, Japan, Korea and Singapore, the country didn’t see a drop in its GDP in the second quarter of 2020. In fact, Taiwan has seen its GDP rise year on year by 3.1%, and unemployment was largely unaffected by the health crisis.
Italy was the first European country to really feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and serious economic repercussions were triggered by the health crisis. The country’s GDP dropped by 8.9% in 2020 and unemployment surged. That said, periods of lockdown did give Italians a chance to save money, and household savings averaged 17.6% of GDP between January and September last year, which is a big increase on the 10.3% average from the previous year. This contributed to a $20,390 (£14.6k) increase in net worth per individual in 2020, giving the average adult Italian a fortune of $239,240 (£171.8k).
Average adult wealth in Germany surged by 15.1% in 2020, bringing it to a new high of $268,680 (£193k). The country was praised for its initial response to the COVID-19 crisis, but lockdowns and regulations dented output and consumption, particularly in spring and autumn. Germany has an incredible 2.95 million US dollar millionaires (as of 2020), which is a huge 633,000-person increase compared to 2019.
Of the populations in this round-up Norwegians saw their wealth change the least during 2020, with the slightest increase of $1,630 (£1.2k) compared to 2019 giving them an average wealth of $275,880 (£198k) per adult. Of the Nordic nations Norway’s GDP was also the least affected by the pandemic as the country saw a drop of just 4%, while unemployment rates rose only marginally. Coronavirus outbreaks in Norway were less severe than most other countries, which accounts for the relatively small disruption to the country’s economy in the past year.
Like most of its European neighbours, Austria’s economic output was diminished by the COVID-19 outbreak, and the country’s GDP saw a severe drop of 14% in the three months that followed March and then a relatively small rebound of 7.1% in the final two quarters of the year. Across 2020 GDP fell by 6.6% in Austria. The Central European country saw unemployment hit a peak of 4.5% in the third quarter of the year but disposable income rose slightly across 2020. Mean wealth per adult Austrian hit $290,350 (£208k) in 2020, which is an increase of $28,790 (£20.7k) compared to the previous year.
The UK has suffered badly in health terms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the first half of 2020 Britain’s GDP fell by 21.4%, and GDP declined by 9.9% compared to 2019. Household savings rose in the UK and the saving rate hit 26.5% in the second quarter. It’s anticipated that most of the additional savings will be spent by the end of 2021. An efficient vaccine rollout programme helped the economy start to recover at the beginning of this year, and average wealth per Brit currently stands at $290,750 (£208.8k).
Canada fared much better than the United States when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s economy still took a nosedive in 2020. Real GDP fell by 11.3% in the second quarter of the year and across the whole 12 months GDP shrunk by 5.4%. Generous relief payments helped to cushion personal finances and Canadians were able to save more money, which helped to push wealth per adult up to $332,320 (£238.7k) – a $29,070 (£20.9k) increase on the previous year. The increase in individual wealth follows the upward trend that started following the 2008 financial crisis and the current average wealth per adult is 38.8% higher than it was in 2007.
Despite not being as badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as most Western countries, Singapore still weathered a 14.8% dent to its GDP in the first six months of 2020, which is a greater decline than neighbours Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Personal disposable income dropped in Singapore, although so did consumption, which allowed for savings to build. This helped to increase the country’s mean wealth per adult by $25,460 (£18.3k) to reach a healthy $332,990 (£239.1k).
Sweden was one of the few countries not to impose strict lockdown regulations, and it was one of the only nations that saw an increase in its GDP in the first quarter of 2020, albeit only 0.3%. A steep 8% decline then followed in the second quarter of the year, and on average GDP fell by 3% across 2020. Unlike the rest of the Nordic nations the average Swede’s disposable income fell by 0.2% last year and consumption dropped by 4.1%, which prompted a smaller rise in personal savings. In Sweden each adult has an average personal wealth of $336,170 (£241.4k).
Quickly imposing strict lockdown restrictions meant that New Zealand was all but free of COVID-19 after May 2020. The country’s economy felt the aftershock of the tight regulations, but early shutdowns meant that New Zealand’s GDP dropped just 0.3% across the year (although in the first quarter it dropped by 10.3%). Unlike other countries personal savings in New Zealand didn’t see a dramatic increase but there was a $15,150 (£10.9k) surge in wealth per adult compared to 2019, bringing the average to $348,200 (£250.1k).
Similar to neighbouring New Zealand, Australia was praised for having a good handle on the COVID-19 outbreak for large parts of the pandemic, and while unemployment increased from 5.2% to 7.1% in the third quarter of 2020, it has since stabilised to a level similar to pre-pandemic. When ranking countries by mean wealth per adult Australia comes in at fourth place with $483,760 (£347.4k), but looking at median wealth – the middle value when ranking wealth from highest to lowest rather than the average – the country comes out on top with $238,070 (£171k) per person. Both data sets show a large increase in wealth per adult compared to 2019.
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Hong Kong is the world’s third-richest country in terms of wealth per person, with each individual having an average fortune of $503,340 (£361.5k). Hong Kong is the only place to feature in this round-up where average wealth in 2020 was less than in 2019 and it’s a significant decrease of $25,420 (£18.3k), or 5.5%. Hong Kong also saw its average wealth per person drop more than any other country in the world. It has also bucked the global trend when it comes to the number of ultra-high net worth individuals that call the region home, having lost around 40,000 millionaires between 2019 and 2020. Currency depreciation is accountable for the huge drop in wealth per person in Hong Kong, according to the Global Wealth Report, which was in part triggered by mainland China’s proposals to introduce the National Security Law in the Special Administrative Region.
The United States is the second-richest country in the world when it comes to wealth per adult, according to the Global Wealth Report 2021. Ultra-high net worth individuals in the States accounted for almost a third of the 5.2 million people globally who joined the seven-figure club in 2020, and the country now boasts almost 22 million millionaires. The economic impact of the pandemic was felt across America, and unemployment saw a sharp rise to 13.1% in the second quarter of last year, although generous financial packages helped to ease the blow to individuals’ finances. The mean wealth per adult in the US is $505,420 (£363k).
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The wealthiest country in the world on the basis of average wealth per person is Switzerland. Although the country was worse affected than neighbouring Austria and Germany in terms of COVID-19 – likely due to its proximity to Italy, which was badly hit – Switzerland’s GDP fell by just 3% across 2020 and it maintained its position as one of the world’s richest nations. The Swiss stock market remained relatively stable throughout the year and individual wealth skyrocketed by $70,730 (£50.8k) to reach a remarkable $673,960 (£484k) per adult in 2020.
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