Amid the pandemic, and before the current soaring inflation and recession, something interesting and unprecedented happened; according to a report published in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals soared to a record number.
To be classified as UHNW, it takes assets worth over $50 million, and there were 46,000 more people in that category than there were in 2020. In all, 218,000 Americans, or roughly the population of Tacoma, Washington, or Des Moines, Iowa.
What led to it? Soaring real estate prices and a red hot stock market. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals were seeing their net worth soar to ultra-higher levels. The report said that 46,000 people in this elite category saw their wealth double by 50 from 2019-2021.
“This is 46,000 more than the 218,200 recorded at the end of 2020, which in turn was 43,400 higher than in 2019. These increases are more than double the increases recorded in any other year this century. Taken together, it means that the number of adults with wealth above USD 50 million expanded by more than 50% during a two-year period.”
Let’s go to the scoreboard. The number of U.S.-based millionaires increased by 2.5 million last year. There are now over 62 million millionaires in America, which is far and away more than any other country. The rest of the global top-5 millionaires look like this; China comes in second with 10% of the planet’s millionaires, followed by Japan, the United Kingdom, and France.
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