It's interesting how things have changed in the last 25 years.
And despite all the social, economic and political challenges, many parts of the world of becoming much wealthier, including Australia.
In the following graphic, we rank 34 countries by their percentage change in wealth from 2010 to 2023.
Figures were sourced from the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024.
“Wealth” in this regard is defined as the value of financial assets (e.g. stocks) plus real assets (e.g. homes) owned by households within each country, minus their debts.
This measurement is also known as “net worth”.
Data and key takeaways
The data used to create this graphic can be found in the table below.
Compound annual growth rates (CAGR) were included for additional context.
Note that all wealth values were measured in U.S. dollars.
| 1 | Kazakhstan | 190% | 9% |
| 2 | China | 185% | 8% |
| 3 | Qatar | 157% | 8% |
| 4 | Israel | 140% | 7% |
| 5 | India | 133% | 7% |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 127% | 7% |
| 7 | Indonesia | 125% | 6% |
| 8 | U.S. | 121% | 6% |
| 9 | Czechia | 113% | 6% |
| 10 | Hungary | 109% | 6% |
| 11 | Taiwan | 108% | 6% |
| 12 | Singapore | 106% | 6% |
| 13 | Saudi Arabia | 95% | 5% |
| 14 | Mexico | 91% | 5% |
| 15 | Thailand | 79% | 5% |
| 16 | UAE | 69% | 4% |
| 17 | Sweden | 66% | 4% |
| 18 | Australia | 66% | 4% |
| 19 | Switzerland | 65% | 4% |
| 20 | Canada | 64% | 4% |
From this select group of 34 countries, we can see that wealth grew the fastest in Kazakhstan.
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The Central Asian country is a major producer of oil, uranium, and other natural resources.
Data from the World Bank shows that Kazakhstan’s GDP has also risen greatly since 1990, from $27 billion to $261 billion in 2023.
Close behind Kazakhstan is China, where wealth has grown 185% since 2010.
This is likely due to various macro trends such as urbanization (urban jobs typically offer higher wages), real estate appreciation, and increased access to financial services.
At the other end of the scale, four countries from this sample saw negative wealth growth over the time period.
These are Spain, Italy, Greece, and Japan.
Many European countries were severely impacted by the Eurozone debt crisis in the early 2010s, which negatively affected household income and wealth accumulation.
In the case of Japan, the country has struggled to grow its economy since the 2000s, which also limits opportunities to accumulate wealth.
Guest author is Marcus Lu, Finance Writer at The Visual Capitalist. You can read the original article here.
