Mapped: 27 Countries Where the Top 0.1% Own More Wealth Than the Bottom 80%

The useful part

Where the Richest 0.1% Hold More Wealth Than the Bottom 80% Connect with us Search for: Key Takeaways In 27 countries, the wealthiest 0.1% own more than the bottom 80% combined. This group includes some of the world's largest countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and the United States.

How it works

• How concentrated does wealth have to become before the richest 0.1% own more than the bottom 80% of the population combined?
• This world map identifies the countries where that threshold has been crossed, using the latest World Inequality Database estimates (2024).
• South Africa offers a striking example of how durable these differences can be.
• However, relatively equal incomes can coexist with concentrated asset ownership.
• However, that does not necessarily mean other EU countries have broadly equal wealth distributions.

What to take from it

18.38% 15.82% 26 🇺🇾 Uruguay 18.30% 14.38% 27 🇸🇪 Sweden 13.86% 10.84% Percentages of total wealth do not add up to 100% because the remainder is held by people between the 80th and 99.9th percentiles. Countries such as Brazil, Colombia, or India may be less surprising in this context, but Sweden stands apart because of its reputation for relatively low income inequality and a strong social safety net. Owning assets creates opportunities that wages alone do not.

Example or evidence

• Reinvesting those returns can build wealth further, while someone without savings must first create room in their budget to begin accumulating assets.
• The estimates cover personal wealth among adults aged 20 and older in each country.
• Even within this group, there is wide variation in the degree of wealth concentration.
• In South Africa, for example, the bottom 80% hold less than 5% of the country's wealth.

Details worth keeping

Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% hold nearly 30%, a share exceeded only by Russia among these 27 countries. The table below ranks the 27 countries by the share of wealth held by their richest 0.1%. Wealth inequality and income inequality measure different things.

Related coverage

• Itep: In most states, the top 1% of tax filers now collectively out-earn the entire bottom half.
• Visualcapitalist: The U.S. leads global wealth at $504k per capita, followed by Australia at $445k. See how the rest of the world compares.
• Visualcapitalist: Global wealth is expanding beyond traditional hubs. Through 2031, Indonesia is forecast to see the fastest ultra-rich population growth.