Millionaire Population Bounces Back to Pre-Crisis Peak

[Sporkman]

Millionaire Population Bounces Back to Pre-Crisis Peak

by Robert Frank
Friday, June 11, 2010

The number of millionaire households in the world has bounced back to boom-time levels, according to a new study.

The 2010 Global Wealth Report by The Boston Consulting Group says there were 11.2 million millionaire households in the world at the end of 2009, a 14% jump from 2008. That puts the millionaire count about where it was in the good old days before the global financial crisis.

The U.S. had especially strong growth, with the number of millionaire households rising to 4.7 million -- still the largest number of millionaire households in the world. That means that roughly 4% of American households are millionaire households. (Singapore had the highest "millionaire density" with 11% of all households being millionaires).

The global growth at the top -- driven by last summer's rebound in financial markets -- marks a stark contrast with the continued malaise at the middle and bottom. As a result, inequality around the world has widened.

The study said 83% of the world's households own only 13% of the wealth, down from 14% the previous year. The top 0.5% of households (those with $5 million or more) owned 21%, or $23 trillion, of the world's wealth. That is up from 19% in 2008...

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109763/millionaire-population-bounces-back?mod=bb-budgeting

[Dustin2128]

eh, probably a result of people making untold sums of money from certain economic stimulus. 'Course this is by no account a bad thing I suppose... more people will be able to buy tickets to sub-orbit from virgin galactic, they'll make money, survive and mankind will spread to space and not become extinct! And before someone shuts down this thread due to the inevitable political spring-ups... the political issues can be related to open source... because the less money people have the more they'll turn to open source alternatives!

[JDShu]

I notice inflation isn't being mentioned in the article... A millionaire today is poorer than a millionaire a decade ago.

[chris200x9]

I wish I was a millionaire :mad:, I will be one day ... but by that time it'll be chump change :(

[razorboy5]

winning a mill this friday through lotto so... i guess i'll be joining that list soon :)

[wilee-nilee]

I notice inflation isn't being mentioned in the article... A millionaire today is poorer than a millionaire a decade ago.

You are always right.;)

[McRat]

Hopefully someday they will raise the minimum wage up so everyone is a millionaire.

It would be very cool to see a McDonald's with a parking lot packed with Ferraris...

[gnomeuser]

In the words of my father. Money isn't an issue, no money is an issue.

The millionaires may be okay again which is nice I suppose, it will still take considerable time for my family and myself especially to recover. I suspect the situation is the same for many people, my father in law e.g. still hasn't found a new job and their savings are nearly depleted, they face selling the car and the house next if things don't improve. I doubt he will take much comfort knowing that rich people are now rich again.

[Spike-X]

Thank goodness for that. Finally, I'll be able to sleep properly again.

[NCLI]

So glad to see that the US is still a country "with the top 10% possessing 80% of all financial assets [and] the bottom 90% holding only 20% of all financial wealth," and that we still live in a world where "the richest 10% of adults account for 85% of the world total and the bottom half of the world adult population own 1% of global wealth." :mad: