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Millionaires Have 39% of the World’s Money

Less than 1% of the world's population controls almost half of the money

By Tim Karan,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 1, 2011 4:40 PM CDT

(Newser) – If you're wondering where all your money has gone, odds are a millionaire added it to his or her pile. Although millionaires make up just 0.9% of the world's population, they control 39% of its wealth—up 2% since 2009—according to a report by Boston Consulting Group. Their collective wealth has risen from $41.8 trillion to $47.4 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The number of millionaire households—those with $1 million or more in investable assets not including homes, company ownership and luxury goods—also swelled by 12.2% last year to 12.5 million. The US boasts far more millionaires than any other country with 5.2 million, followed by Japan with 1.5 million. The super-rich keep getting super-richer, too, as those with $5 million or more gained an additional 2% of the world's wealth last year, increasing their total to 22% of all the money in the world.

Millionaires control 39% of the world's wealth, according to a new report.
Millionaires control 39% of the world's wealth, according to a new report.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 70 comments
tangeri
Jun 2, 2011 7:41 AM CDT
Stop voting like you're going to be a millionaire. Chances are more than likely that you're not. When you are you can throw it in my face. Until then, vote for the group you belong to. We can beat these assholes at the ballot, every election, every time, if poor and middle class people vote to support poor and middle class people. Saying we're leeching because we're looking after our best interest is bullshit. We're the workers who actually do the work that makes this country work.
eow182
Jun 1, 2011 9:14 PM CDT
Why is this story posted as if this is a bad thing? Obviously the millionaires are going to have a fair share of the money, it only makes sense. I think it's great the US has the most, it shows how successful capitalism is. If an entire country is full of lower class citizens something is terribly wrong and the standard of living is going to be lower for everyone. Besides, I believe it's safe to say that most of them weren't just born into it, they earned their way to that status, and anyone who doesn't realize that the classes exist with a dynamic equilibrium hasn't thought the process through. Everyone has the opportunity to be one of those millionaires.
shmortisborg
Jun 1, 2011 8:37 PM CDT
Its so funny that Obama was so critisized when offhandedly said "we are going to spread the wealth around" and then Redistribution Of Wealth became the conservative buzz word to rally against - but I ask you this, isnt Ronald Reagan's "Trickle-down economics" just the same Redistribution of Wealth that Obama was referring to? Read it in context. The truth is that capitalism only makes the rich richer, and in a finite supply of money that becomes a problem sooner or later. Not everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, there will always be a lower class, and I just think they have at least the right to health care without perpetuating their cycle of debt for the rest of their lives.Correct me if Im wrong, but I dont believe government-funded social services created laziness, lack of ambition, poverty, homelessness, the unemployed, or the sick; instead i think that these services were created because these people have always existed. It doesnt mean they are necessarily lazier than any other segment of humanity, and they arent stupid but are historically always less educated. Can everyone pull themselves up by their bootstraps?
Money • Great Finds • US • World

 
wealth • millionaires • income disparity • personal wealth • income gap • super rich

 
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