Worldwide prosperity is increasing, especially among those who already have a lot. And so the gap between the rich and the super-rich is growing – especially in Germany.
Last year, global wealth grew by four percent. That’s not a lot given the high inflation, but it’s better than in 2022, when global wealth shrank due to the war in Ukraine and the long-term effects of Corona. But the gap between rich and poor has also grown. This is the result of the wealth study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the “Global Wealth Report 2024”.
The figures for Germany are worse than the global average: there was only very slight growth here in 2023, and the BCG report speaks of “stagnation”. Although Germany is still one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a particularly large amount of wealth is held in real estate – and its value has developed very poorly in contrast to others: while German financial assets grew by 5 percent, the equivalent value of tangible assets shrank by 2.3 percent.
It is also noticeable that Germans love cash, checking, fixed-term and savings accounts. Around 41 percent of financial assets in Germany are invested in this way – or rather parked. Although they are safer in times of crisis than stocks, for example, they hardly yield any returns. In Western Europe, the figure is just 32 percent, and worldwide it is even slightly less.
73,000 super-rich people worldwide
As every year, the Boston Consulting study takes a closer look at the distribution of financial wealth. The phenomenon of the super-rich is particularly interesting. BCG calls them “Ultra High Net Worth Individuals” or UHNWIs. In German, this means something like “ultra-high net worth individuals” or simply super-rich.
Boston Consulting counts all people who have financial assets of more than 100 million dollars as super-rich. There are 3,300 of them in Germany. Worldwide, there are a total of 73,000 super-rich people – a third of whom live in the USA.
Super-rich people own 14 percent of financial assets worldwide
All the super-rich together have 14 percent of the world’s financial assets: that’s 38,000 billion US dollars. And the BCG analysis shows that the higher the individual’s initial wealth, the higher their increase in wealth. In other words, the rich in particular became richer and richer.
This also applies – and especially – to Germany. According to BCG, the distribution of wealth in this country is “more unequal than average”. In Germany, the group of super-rich owns 2,100 billion dollars – and thus 23 percent of the financial assets in this country.
Smaller assets grew more slowly in Germany
According to the study, the financial assets of the super-rich in Germany grew by more than 10 percent. Rich people who have between 1 and 5 million dollars in financial assets could only enjoy an average increase of more than five percent. In contrast, German citizens who have less than 250,000 US dollars in financial assets saw an average increase of only 1.5 percent – well below the inflation rate.
“Very wealthy investors have invested a higher proportion of their assets in the capital market and in high-yield asset classes such as private equity,” explains BCG partner Akin Soysal. “Less wealthy investors traditionally rely on lower-risk asset classes such as bank deposits, cash or insurance – at the expense of returns.”
555,000 dollar millionaires in Germany
The number of super-rich people in Germany has increased, and the number of dollar millionaires has also increased. There are now 555,000 of them in Germany. The fact that there are more millionaires and more super-rich people is also due to the fact that money is losing value. Unfortunately, these figures are not adjusted for inflation – and therefore comparisons with the previous year are of little significance.
Added to this are the exchange rate fluctuations between the euro and the dollar. The figures in the study are calculated using the exchange rate at the end of 2023. At that time, one euro was worth a good $1.10. A dollar millionaire therefore owned “only” 910,000 euros on the reference date.
The “Global Wealth Report” is being published for the 24th time. Every year, the Boston Consulting Group estimates global wealth and describes how it is distributed across the various asset classes. To facilitate global comparability, all figures are in US dollars.
Source: Stern
