The net worth of the middle class in 2015 amounted to United States dollars 80.7 trillion worldwide, or 32% of global wealth.
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The percentage of the middle class within the total population in Turkey pales in comparison to developed countries, with Turkey’s middle class constituting only 9.9 percent of the adult population as of 2015, while the figure stands at 56 percent in Norway and 66 percent in Australia.
The average debt of US$54,600 is moderate for a high-wealth country, at just 17 per cent of total assets.
The report, which examined wealth in more than 200 countries, also revealed that for the first time, the middle class in China – with 109 million adults – become the world’s largest, overtaking the U.S. which has 92 million adults in the same category. The jump in the share of the top percentile to 50 percent this year exceeds the increase expected on the basis of any underlying upward trend.
By the bank’s reckoning, just over $250 trillion United States worth of wealth has been amassed by households.
These statistical quirks do not take away from the main message of the global wealth tables.
Wealth is now expected to climb 6.6 per cent a year to US$345 trillion through June 2020, the Zurich-based bank said in its annual wealth report on Tuesday. 21 per cent of the global population – fall in the US$10,000-US$100,000 range.
Half of the world’s wealth is in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to research by Credit Suisse. Ultra-high net worth individuals, those with net assets above 50 million, now number 123,800, according to the study.
Another quarter live in Europe (mainly Britain, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy), followed by China and then Japan. Its average wealth is also among the lowest. That compares with last year’s projection of an increase of 7 per cent a year to US$369 trillion by 2019.
Over the next five years, it is increasingly likely the world’s millionaires list will be topped by Asia-Pacific nations, as the number of millionaires in this region is forecast to grow by 66 per cent.
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But while the overall pool of cash has declined, the gap between rich and poor has widened, with the top 1 percent of global wealth holders now in possession of 50 percent of all household assets in the world, according to the annual Credit Suisse global wealth report. “Nevertheless, the number of millionaires has still grown significantly after discounting for these factors”, the report authors said.
