Global wealth disparities are more pronounced than global income disparities. Only two percent of the total wealth is owned by the world's poorest fifty percent of the population. In contrast, the wealthiest 10% of the world's population own 76% of all wealth. The poorest half of the population owns an average of €2,900 in PPP terms per adult, while the richest 10% own €550,900 (World Inequality Report, 2022).
The increase in private wealth has also been unequal within nations and globally. Over the past several decades, a disproportionate share of global wealth growth has been captured by multimillionaires; the top 1 percent took 38 percent of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, while the bottom 50 percent took only 2 percent. This inequality is the result of significant disparities in growth rates between the wealthiest and poorest segments of society. Since 1995, the wealth of the world's wealthiest individuals have increased by 6 to 9 percent annually, while the average wealth has increased by 3.2 percent. Since 1995, the percentage of global wealth owned by billionaires has increased from 1% to over 3%. During the COVID pandemic, this increase was exacerbated. The proportion of the world's wealth held by billionaires grew at its fastest rate ever in 2020 (World Inequality Report, 2022).
