Australian adults wealthiest in the world, new global report finds

We are rolling in it according to a new study that says Aussie adults are the wealthiest in the world and the number of super-rich is expected to rise.

Australian adults are the wealthiest in the world, a new report has found.

Aussies topped the global rankings for median wealth per adult, at $A315,000 per person, according to Credit Suisse’s annual Global Wealth Report.

Following closely behind Australia was Belgium, with a median of $A305,000 per person, then Hong Kong at $A230,000 and next New Zealand at $A227,000 for each adult.

The report also found almost one in 10 Australian adults are now millionaires.

A staggering 9.4 per cent of working Australian adults – 1.8 million – are millionaires in US dollars, which the report was measured in.

By 2025, three million Australians are expected to be millionaires.

Australia’s coronavirus recovery, the strength of the Australian dollar, and low interest rates are behind the country’s huge jump in wealth in 2020, according to experts.

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Australian adults are the wealthiest in the world, a new report has found. File photo.

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Australia recorded the second-highest spike in wealth during 2020, with the average adult gaining an extra A$87,137 compared to previous years.

The only country to beat Australia was Switzerland, which jumped by $93,000 per adult.

In terms of average wealth per adult, as opposed to the median, Australia still ranked highly, scoring fourth place across the world.

Australian adults on average, as of 2020, have accrued $641,000 in wealth.

In the top slot was Switzerland, with its citizens hoarding $893000 of wealth per person, followed by the US and Hong Kong at $669,000 and $666,000 respectively.

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One in ten Australians you walk past on the street could be a millionaire. File photo.

The report also found that Australia now has 3,262 “ultra-high-net-worth adults” who are pulling up the average wealth across the nation.

These extremely wealthy Aussies have more than $60 million to their name, each.

Australia was also found to spread out its wealth more evenly than most other developed countries.

Australia got a low score on the Gini Index, which measures wealth inequality, at 65.6, indicating that wealth is spread more equitably here than in overseas countries.

The report concluded that “wealth creation in 2020 was largely immune to the challenges facing the world”, suggesting that the rich continued to get richer during the coronavirus pandemic.

Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Switzerland and the US ranked highly.

Michael Marr, of Credit Suisse Australia, said houses and stocks were to thank for the country’s rise in wealth.

“Over the next five years, the number of USD millionaires in Australia is expected to increase dramatically by 70 per cent, from 1,805,000 to 3,071,000, an increase of 1,266,000,” he said in a statement.

“This will be driven by the ongoing performance of our two principle sources of wealth, housing and financial assets, underpinned by robust GDP growth.

“The link in normal times between GDP growth and household wealth growth, combined with the expected rapid return of economic activity to its pre-pandemic time path, leads us to believe that wealth will grow at a fast pace over the next five years.

“The RBA’s lowering of interest rates in conjunction with other Central Banks across the world was probably the biggest contributor to Australia’s performance in the Global Wealth rankings in 2020, fuelling equity and housing market increases across Australia.

“The rapid appreciation of the Australian dollar over 2020 also played a significant role in Australia’s position in the rankings.”