The rich continue to get richer. A social stratum of people who keep vintage Rolls Royces in their garage and spend their holidays in Monaco has increased in both quantity and quality.
By 2020, the top 1% of the world will own over 50% of the global private fortune, predicts Boston Consulting Group (BCG). At the moment, the most wealthy inhabitants of the planet whose number has reached 18.5 million people (compared to 15 million in 2013) control 47% of global wealth. Their total wealth is estimated at $78.8 trillion dollars. Their cumulated fortune alone totals the world GDP. According to BCG, in four years this figure will reach 52% of the world’s wealth, which by that time will be assessed at $224 trillion US dollars.
France is home to 445,000 millionaires. This figure is small compared to the US (8 million) and China (2 million). However, within the next few years their number will only grow. According to the Managing Partner of BCG, Benoit Mace: “France is witnessing a significant growth in the segment from 1 to 20 million dollar owners, a total of 10.6% in 2014-2015.”
In 2014 – 2015, the overall number of the rich increased by 6%. China and India have greatly influenced these statistics, while Liechtenstein and Switzerland have the greatest overall concentration of millionaires.
However, Europe is no longer the second richest region. 2017 will give way to the Pacific Asian countries. These changes are due to a slowdown in wealth accumulation: with a rate of just 6% in Eastern Europe (compared to 11% in 2014) and 2% in Western Europe (6% in 2014). The wealth growth rates slowed down worldwide between 2014-2015, except for Japan. North America still leads the richest regions list (63%), followed by Africa and the Middle East (56%) and Eastern Europe (55%).
