Growth in global private wealth accelerated last year. After an increase of 4.2% in 2023, there was an increase of 4.6% in 2024 to around 470 trillion dollars, according to the annual Global Wealth Report published by Swiss bank UBS. Thanks to strong financial markets, North America recorded the largest increase at 11.4%. In the Asia-Pacific region, wealth increased by 2.9%; in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, on the other hand, there was only a rise of 0.4%. The value of financial assets and property shrank in more than half of the 56 markets analysed.

US citizens hold the largest share of wealth with around 35% of global assets, followed by the Chinese with around 20%. This is followed by Japan, the UK, Germany, France and the rest of the world with a combined total of just 46% of global wealth.

The wealth ranking is once again led by Switzerland, which wealthy people traditionally value as a safe haven. In 2024, an adult there had an average wealth of just over 687,000 dollars, followed by the USA with 620,654 dollars. Germany, the world's third-largest economy, only ranks 19th with around 257,000 dollars per adult, well behind the UK and France.

Due to the presentation in dollars, currency fluctuations naturally also play a major role in the comparison, which leads to distortions in perception. In its analysis, UBS included its own data and experience in the wealth management of high net worth individuals, and also used this to recalibrate freely available data.

The fact that Germany has a comparatively high number of „millionaires“ (4% of all adults), but the average value of assets is comparatively low at 256,715 dollars (compared to 620,654 dollars in the USA), is on the one hand an expression of lower inequality. However, it is also due to the lack of widespread private pension provision, which elsewhere is mostly realised via the capital markets. German assets are also more likely to be found in the SME sector, in other words in property, company assets, or land. As a result, German citizens have also benefited relatively little from the strong stock markets, writes UBS.

The wealth of the middle class is growing fastest in Germany. „We expect half a million additional US dollar millionaires by 2029,“ UBS predicts. Over the next 20 years, inheritances are likely to trigger a transfer of wealth totalling more than 3 trillion dollars, which corresponds to 17% of German household wealth.

At the presentation, UBS conceded that high private assets are often offset by high public debt „on the other side of the balance sheet“. In this respect, the bankers also assume that the pressure on the wealthy will increase, and that there will be greater demand for a „fairer distribution of wealth“ – for example with regard to tax reforms. At the same time, however, consideration must also be given to higher-yielding small savings investments, and the political framework for this must be put in place.