Just 56m or 1% of adults out of 5.3bn globally are millionaires in net wealth terms.  And they own 45% of all global personal wealth.  The other 99% own the rest and there are nearly 3bn people in the world that have little or no wealth at all (after debts are deducted).

Every year I report on the results of the annual Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report.  Produced by economists Anthony Shorrocks (with whom I graduated at university), James Davies and Rodrigo Lluberas, this is the most comprehensive study of global personal wealth and inequality between adults around the world.

In the 2021 report, the economists find that the global wealth gap widened during the Covid pandemic, swelling the ranks of the world’s millionaires by 5.2 million as the rich cashed in on surging stock and house prices.  I quote “During the pandemic, emergency interest rate cuts…