A Total Of 226,000 People In Singapore Are Among The World's Richest 1%

The report by a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company called Credit Suisse Research Institute was published on 21 October in its tenth edition of the Global Wealth Report 2019.

The report, which compared the household wealth of 5.1 billion people worldwide, with Switzerland, Hong Kong and the US identified as the world's three richest nationalities, said that in Singapore the wealth per adult measured in US dollars has been growing since 2015.

According to the report, there are a whopping 207,000 millionaires living in Singapore.

Additionally, some 226,000 Singaporeans, 5% of the population there, belonged to the world's richest 1% of people, which was defined as those with over USD936,400 to their name.

According to the report, average wealth in Singapore has almost tripled since 2000. It's high at USD297,873 per adult in mid-2019 compared to USD114,720 in 2000.

"The rise was mostly caused by high savings, asset price increases, and an overall 28% increase in the exchange rate from 2000 to 2019," the report said.

Since 2000, Singapore's wealth per adult has grown at an average annual rate of 5.3%, which is more than double the average growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region.

In fact, Singapore's wealth per adult growth has been so phenomenal that it also exceeds the 4.5% average growth rate of world wealth per adult.

With wealth per adult USD489,260, Hong Kong has placed first in Asia in the ranking.

According to the report, financial assets make up 57% of gross household wealth in Singapore, which is a ratio similar to that of Switzerland.

"The average debt of USD52,340 is moderate for a high-wealth country, equaling 15% of total assets," the report said, adding that Singapore publishes household sector balance sheet data, making its wealth information more reliable than that of most of its neighbours in Southeast Asia.

"Wealth inequality in Singapore is not extreme compared with other countries, as indicated by its wealth Gini coefficient of 76% and share of the top 1% of wealth holders of 32%," the report said.

According to the figures published in its Global Wealth Report 2019, the number of Singaporeans with wealth under USD10,000 was 14% in 2019, which is far lower than the global average of 58%.

It, however, noted that there are two current trends that are beginning to narrow this gap.

"Inheritance is a more important source of wealth for women than for men, so women should benefit disproportionately from the rise in the flow of inherited wealth that is occurring in high-income economies, and which has begun to occur in the transition countries," the report said.

"In addition, women's earnings are rising and more are becoming business leaders, so the self-made wealth of women is also rising."