The average Australian adult’s wealth has soared 211 per cent to US$321,000 in the past 10 years, according to a new study.
The Credit Suisse Research Institute’s inaugural Global Wealth Report found that Australian adults were the third-richest in the world as at mid-2010, ahead of their United States and United Kingdom counterparts but behind Switzerland and Norway.
Collectively, there were 16 million Australian adults sitting on US$5.1 trillion.
“Along with its Pacific neighbour, New Zealand, Australia experienced very robust growth, with wealth per adult tripling over the past decade,” Credit Suisse global head of research for private banking and asset management Giles Keating said.
“Obviously you are still looking at a very impressive figure in local currency terms and that’s reflecting the evolution of the housing market, plus the evolution of the stockmarket including actual underlying accumulation of earnings.”
The report said the composition of wealth was heavily skewed towards real property, which amounts on average to US$261,000 and forms 64 per cent of total household assets.
“In fact, the level of real assets per adult in Australia is now the second highest in the world after Norway,” it said.
Overall, the report showed the global wealth currently held by 4.4 billion adults has advanced 72 per cent since 2000 to reach US$195 trillion.
“Driven by robust economic expansion in the emerging markets, the Credit Suisse Research Institute estimates that global wealth will grow 61 per cent to US$315 trillion by 2015,” it said.
The report confirmed that Asia-Pacific countries, which now make up the bulk of the world’s middle class of emerging consumers, are driving the growth of the world’s wealth.
China is the third-largest wealth market in the world at US$16.5 trillion, 35 per cent greater than France, the wealthiest European country.
