"Here are the findings of Credit Suisse Institute's latest study in global wealth."
Would you believe that there are only 24 Filipinos with wealth of $500 million or more, the so-called Ultra High Net Worth individuals?
And that the Philippines has 32,354 US dollar millionaires (or high net worth individuals) whose combined wealth is $518 billion, an amount 1.67 times the country’s Gross Domestic Product of $310 billion?
The Philippines is a country of 24-million families and a population of 106-million people, of which 62,043,000 (62.043 million) are adults.
On average, each adult Filipino (19 or older) has wealth of $8,335 (debts included), according to Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse defines net worth as the value of financial assets, plus non-financial assets—principally housing and land, less debts.
To be among the wealthiest half of the world in mid-2018, an adult needs only $4,210 in assets, once debts are subtracted.
That the Philippines only 32,354 dollar billionaires of which 24 are UHNW is one of the findings of the study conducted this year by the Credit Suisse Research Institute entitled “Global Wealth Databook 2018.”
Credit Suisse is one of the world’s leading banks in wealth management, with a strong presence in its home market, Switzerland, the hiding place of much of the world’s wealth, legal and the mostly illegal.
The bank’s study found the Philippines has only 32,354 US dollar millionaires.
Of the 32,354 Filipino millionaires, 27,369 (84.59 percent) have wealth of between $1 million and $5 million; 2,757 (8.5 percent) have wealth of between $5 million and $10 million; 190 (.587 percent) have wealth of $50 million to $100 million; 130 (.4) have wealth of $100 million to $500 million; and 24 individuals (.074 percent) have wealth of $500 million or more.
Credit Suisse’s “Global Wealth Databook 2018” indicates the world has 42 million dollar millionaires. Of that number, 17.349 million individuals are in the United States; 3.479 million in China; 2.8 million in Japan; 183,736 in Singapore; 88,845 in Indonesia; 39,814 in Thailand; and 4,943 in Vietnam.
The 17.34-million American millionaires have combined wealth of $98,154 billion ($98.15 trillion) or 34.5 percent of the world’s wealth of $285.25 trillion; the 3.47-million Chinese millionaires have combined wealth of $46.49 trillion or 16.3 percent of global wealth; and the 2.8-million Japanese millionaires have combined wealth of $23.88 trillion or 8.4 percent of global wealth. India has 343,075 millionaires. Their combined wealth is $5.25 trillion or 1.85 percent of global wealth.
UHNW individuals with net assets above $50 million now number 149,890 worldwide. The United States leads with 47 percent of UHNW adults. China is a distant second with only 11 percent of the total membership.
North America is the world’s richest region with total wealth of $97 trillion; followed by Europe $73.66 trillion; the Asia Pacific (outside China and India) $52.9 trillion; China $46.49 trillion; Latin America $8.06 trillion; and India $5.25 trillion. Africa has $2.29 trillion.
For mid-2018, CS estimates that 42.0- million HNW adults have wealth between $1 million and $50 million, of whom the vast majority (37.1 million) fall within the $1million–5 million range.
North America accounts for the greatest number of millionaires, significantly above Europe, which in turn hosts nearly double the number in Asia-Pacific countries, excluding China and India. China now accounts for 8 percent of all HNW individuals, while Latin America, India and Africa together account for only 2 percent of the total.
However, a person needs at least $93,170 to belong to the top 10 percent of global wealth holders and $871,320 to be a member of the top one percent.
The bottom half of the global population own less than one percent of total wealth. The richest 10 percent hold 85 percent of the world’s wealth, and the top 1 percent alone accounts for 47 percent of global assets.
CS visualizes the global wealth distribution in the form of a wealth pyramid which places adults in one of four wealth bands: under $10,000; between $10,000 and $100,000; between $100,000 and $1 million; and over $1 million.
The base level of the pyramid contains 3.2-million adults, or 63 percent of the global population, but accounts for only 1.9 percent of global wealth. In contrast, dollar millionaires comprise 0.8 percent of all adults, but collectively own 45 percent of all assets.
Credit Suisse has provided estimates of the wealth holdings of households around the world for each year since 2000.
While the base of the wealth pyramid is occupied by people from all countries at various stages of their life cycles, HNW and UHNW individuals are heavily concentrated in particular regions and countries, and tend to share more similar lifestyles, participating in the same global markets for luxury goods, even when they reside in different continents.
The wealth portfolios of these individuals are also likely to be more similar, with more of a focus on financial assets and, in particular, equity holdings in public companies traded in international markets.
More specifically, CS was interested in the distribution within and across nations of individual net worth, defined as the marketable value of financial assets plus non-financial assets (principally housing and land) less debts.
The valuations of individual wealth holdings are dominated by financial assets, especially equity holdings in public companies traded in international markets.
For practical reasons, less attention is given to non- financial assets apart from major real estate holdings and trophy assets, such as expensive yachts. Even less is known—and hence recorded—about personal debts.