The World Inequality Lab has just released its annual World Inequality Report. The 2022 report highlights a number of interesting figures specifically focused on how inequality in everything from wealth to gender has changed since the pandemic began, with a particular focus on changes wrought in 2021.
One of the most striking sets of data from the report reveals that billionaires’ total share of global wealth has risen from 1% in 1995 to 3% of all wealth in the world by 2021. More interesting (or alarming, depending on your point of view), is the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend. “In fact,” the report notes, “2020 marked the steepest increase in global billionaires’ share of wealth on record.”
But just how many people comprise that group of global billionaires in 2021? The report sheds light on that too. Here’s the number of people worth:
- Over $100 billion: 9
- $10 billion to $100 billion: 159
- $1 billion to $10 billion: 2,582
As for how many millionaires there are:
- $100 million to $1 billion: 73,710
- $10 million to $100 million: 1,769.200
- $1 million to $10 million: 60,319,510
In total, the report says there are 62,165,160 people in the world worth $1 million or more and 2,750 billionaires in the world. The over 62.1 million people who were worth $1 million or more have a combined wealth of $174 trillion.
The World Inequality Lab’s 2022 World Inequality Report is a fascinating read and you can find the entire report here.
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