Australians are pretty rich but there's a catch
The annual UBS report analyses key financial data from 56 countries, determining net worth by combining financial assets with real assets (savings, stocks and property), and deducting debt.
Australia retained its place as the world's second-richest country for median wealth, and fifth for average wealth. Further, 1.9 million Australians maintained their status as millionaires in US dollar terms (at least $1.55 million to their name).
All this looks and sounds pretty good, right? This year's median wealth figure of $411,000 is an increase of 6 per cent over last year's $387,176. The only country with a healthier figure is Luxembourg, with $607,000. By this metric, we are significantly better off than New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the United States, among others.
Meanwhile, this year's average wealth figure marks an even greater leap, increasing by 17.8 per cent in just 12 months from last year's $807,862 to $952,000. Switzerland, the US, Hong Kong and Luxembourg took out the top spots, but we are still ahead of the UK, France, Canada and New Zealand.
Intriguingly, the wealth growth trend in median and average wealth was not evident in the number of Australian millionaires. In fact, that number decreased slightly, from 1.93 million last year.
The UBS report simply highlights what many of us already know to be true, which is that if you want to get ahead in Australia, you need to own property.
In isolation, that might not seem much of a dip. The UBS report estimates the number of Australians with a personal wealth of $1.55 million or more will grow by more than 20 per cent over the next three years, so there could be roughly 400,000 more millionaires by 2028.
Combine the growth in median and average wealth with the dip in the number of millionaires, and the UBS report paints an eerily similar picture to the concerns that were raised when this year's Australian Financial Review Rich List was published.
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