Meet the EMILLIs, our everyday millionaires. Australia has plenty of them

It says a lot that economists have created a new term – “everyday millionaires”, or for short, EMILLIs – to describe the rapidly growing number of people whose net wealth sits between $US1 million and $US5 million ($1.5 million and $7.7 million).

Of the 60 million EMILLIs worldwide, Australia boasts about 2 million people who own $US1 million or more, which stands to show that while in this cost-of-living crisis we may not feel economically lucky, relative to the rest of the world a lot of us definitely are.

Up, up, up on the wealth ladder: The number of Australian millionaires is growing. Credit: Harry Afentoglou

Given our adult population sits at roughly 21 million, about 10 per cent of us are millionaires in US dollar terms, according to the numbers contained in the UBS Global Wealth Report for 2024 published this week.

Looking at the investment bank’s global EMILLI rankings, Switzerland and Luxembourg sit at the top, with more than one in seven adults classified as a US dollar millionaire. A further four places on the planet have a ratio of one in 10: Hong Kong, Australia, the United States and the Netherlands.

EMILLIs may not live in mansions, drive Maseratis or jet off to the Maldives. They’re more likely the person driving by in his Lexus, the woman walking her Labrador at the park, or your next-door neighbour.

We sit around eighth in the world for the total number of US dollar millionaires, which includes EMILLIs and those even richer, behind the US, China, France, Japan, Germany, the UK and Canada. With their ranks swelling by more than 1000 a day last year, the US now counts nearly 24 million millionaires – about 40 per cent of all millionaires around the world, and four times as many as the runner-up, China.

In terms of individual wealth, we punch well above our weight. Last year, Australia’s median personal wealth grew by 11 per cent to $US268,000 ($413,500), ranking us second in the world on this measure. Luxembourg sits in the top spot. In terms of average wealth per adult, Australia came in fifth with $US516,000 ($796,000). Switzerland tops that list, ahead of the US, Hong Kong and Luxembourg.

Hitting a high note on median wealth is a particularly good achievement for us because it signifies a more even distribution of wealth across the community.

The UBS report singles out Australia as a nation with a very high proportion of wealth invested in property – about 70 per cent. Other nations, including the US, invest more heavily in financial assets like the sharemarket.

In other words, Australia’s obsession with home ownership is pushing up our wealth-growing credentials. And given our residential property market looks set to rise strongly this year, 2025 could be another solid growth period for Australians.

Australia’s growing riches look even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world, given average wealth per adult declined in half the countries in the survey.

Despite this, the report says that over the past 25 years there has been a marked and consistent increase in wealth worldwide – around the globe and in each main region individually. Total global wealth has risen at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4 per cent since 2000.

This decade, the band of people having less than US$10,000 has ceased to be the most populated one in the sample, having been overtaken by those owning between US$10,000 and US$100,000.

And the forecasts are for more of the same for the years ahead.

The number of EMILLIs in the world has more than quadrupled since 2000 to about 52 million, according to the analysis. At the turn of the millennium, their number stood at a mere 13.27 million individuals and, as recently as 2019, the UBS report counted close to 44 million. By the end of last year, however, this cohort had grown to almost 52 million, up 18 per cent in just five years.

Chances are you may be sitting next to an EMILLI on the train – if you’re not one yourself.

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