The Allianz Global wealth report split all households/individuals into global wealth classes in order to analyze how wealth is distributed at the global level. The division is based on the average global net per capita financial assets, which came in at EUR 23,330 in 2015.
The middle wealth (MW) class encompasses all individuals with assets corresponding to between 30% and 180% of the global average. This means that for 2015, the asset thresholds for the global wealth middle class stand at EUR 7,000 and EUR 42,000.
The “low wealth” (LW) category, on the other hand, includes those individuals with net financial assets that are below the EUR 7,000 threshold, while the term “high wealth” (HW) applies to those with net financial assets of more than EUR 42,000
Although the vast majority of the five billion people living in the countries included in our analysis still belong to the low wealth class, the number is down slightly as against 2000 to 3.4 billion, meaning that only 69% of the total population (as opposed to 80% in 2000) belong to this wealth category today. Progress has also been made in terms of their share of global net financial assets, albeit at a very modest level: the people in this category now hold 5% of global net financial assets as opposed to 3% in the past – not a huge increase, but a sign of progress all the same.
Almost 600 million in total, have achieved promotion to the middle wealth class – particularly in the up-and-coming economies. While the lion’s share is naturally attributable to China, other countries in Asia, almost all countries in Latin America (with the exception of Brazil) and many eastern European countries have also been writing this very same success story in recent years. This story of advancement translates directly into a bigger global middle wealth class: over the past few years, the number of people who belong to this category has more than doubled. For the last two years, this global middle class has counted more than 1 billion members
The financial assets of Canadian households grew at more than twice the rate seen in the US. One thing that the two countries have in common, however, is a slowdown in year-on-year asset growth, with the rate of growth falling from 8.8% to 6.2% in Canada and from 5.7% to 2.4% in the US.
Canadian household wealth averaged a little over half of the US per household level. Canadians were ahead of all western european countries except Switzerland.
SOURCE- Allianz
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