South Korea ranks 11th in number of billionaires

Last year, the number of millionaires, people with assets worth more than USD 1 million (about 1.394 billion won), was 1.29 million. The global investment bank "Credit Suisse" released the "Global Wealth Report 2022" on the 20th. The figure increased by 116,000 from 1.174 million in 2020.

Based on assets, 1,043,000 Korean adults were included in the "Global Top 1 per cent," and 18.483 million adults were included in the "Global Top 10 per cent"

Korea also ranked 11th in the number of Ultra high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals following the US, China, Germany, Canada, India, Japan, France, Australia, the UK, and Italy.

As of the end of 2021, the average asset per Korean adult was estimated to be USD 237,644 (about 331.16 million won) and the median was estimated to be USD 93,141 (about 129.79 million won).

The report said that Korea's wealth inequality is relatively low, and this indicates more equal income distribution. It also evaluated that it was affected by rather heavy inheritance taxes.

The report analyzed that the number of UHNW individuals in the world increased significantly to 264,200 last year as asset prices soared in the process of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is estimated the number of UHNW individuals with net assets of more than USD 50 million (about 69.6 billion won) was 264,200 at the end of 2021. This is an increase of more than 46,000 from 218,200 in 2020. The number of UHNW individuals in 2020 was also 43,400 more than in 2019.

In short, the number of UHNW individuals increased by more than 50 per cent over the past 2 years.

Credit Suisse said the surge in financial assets led to an increase in wealth inequality in 2021, and this is probably due to the soaring value of assets during the COVID-19 pandemic.