The richest people in the world

Business Times - 06 Dec 2006

Richest 2% own more than half the world

(HELSINKI) Two per cent of adults have more than half of the world's wealth, including property and financial assets, according to a UN study. While global income is distributed unequally, the spread of wealth is even more skewed, the study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the UN University said. 'Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth,' the survey showed. The Helsinki-based institute said yesterday that its study was the first global research on the topic, for which there is only limited data.

'We've estimated that the richest 2 per cent of adults own more than half of global wealth, while the bottom half own one per cent,' said institute director Anthony Shorrocks. 'If you think income has been distributed unequally, wealth has been distributed even more unequally,' Mr Shorrocks said. According to the study, in 2000 a couple needed capital of US$1 million to be among the top one per cent on the wealth list - the richest 37 million people in the world. More than one in every two of those people lives in the US or Japan. And it found that net assets of US$2,200 per adult would put a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution. – Reuters

These are figures we had to contend with all the time as students of Development Studies. Between the 2% who owned 50% and the 50% who owned 1% is what Professor Robert Wade calls the “Missing Middle” and the skewed distribution of income the “Wine Glass” effect.

The reality of those two phenomena and their exacerbation is a problem that makes the world a riskier place. Not a better place.

The problem is quite massive. Overwhelming. Daunting. I admire my classmates who actually got into development and stayed.

If indeed the Missing Middle is getting thinner (and statistics say it is), it follows that I (being in the middle) would be pulled at either direction. If that is inevitable, then I want to be moving towards the direction of the 2%.

At graduation, this was the question I faced: Do I want to help others or help myself?