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Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

Does a net worth of $5,000 make an individual richer than half of the global population?

Jacob Alabab-Moser, Gigafact
yes

Wealth equivalent to more than $4,100 places an individual in the richer half of the world's population.

The poorer 50% of the planet's inhabitants own an average of $4,100 in assets, according to 2021 data from the World Inequality Lab. The bottom 50% account for just 2% of total global wealth.

In comparison, the top 10% owns more than three-quarters (76%) of global wealth, with an average net worth of $771,000.

While the wealth of the top 10% is growing more slowly than the global average, the wealth of the top 1% is growing much more rapidly, capturing "38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s," the organization says. The wealth of the top 0.1% rose from 7% to 11% of the total over the same period, with particularly steep gains for billionaires, according to the report.

Wealth differences between adults have continued to widen during the pandemic, both overall in the world and in most individual countries.

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