It’s just been reported that Singapore is the country with the most millionaires in the world. Why then do most people I speak to, feel so darn poor? People around me are facing long term unemployment, especially the older workers who have been retrenched. I think it’s a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It’s scary how the income gap is widening. I see more and more people busking or selling tissues to make a few bucks.
The number of millionaire households in the world represents less than 1% of all households. Even so, these most fortunate ones owned about 38% of the world’s wealth in 2009, up from 36% in 2008. In North America, Africa and the Middle East, millionaire households represented more than half of the wealth in those regions.
Another juicy morsel: The number of millionaire households rose by 14% in 2009 to 11.2 million, and the U.S. had by far the most millionaire households, with 4.7 million.
But that doesn’t mean millionaires are crowding U.S. streets or that sumptuous yachts dominate the nation’s waterways. In fact, you’re more likely to find those conditions in Singapore, which had the highest percentage of millionaire households in the world.
Yes, that puts Singapore at the top of Boston Consulting Group list of the top 10 countries with the the greatest proportion of millionaire households. You may be surprised by the full run-down:
1) Singapore
Population: 4.7 million
Percentage of Millionaire Households: 11.4%Who would think the tiny Republic of Singapore would be crammed with so many millionaires? The country, all of just 247 square miles, has emerged from the recession and has rebounded in a big way. Its GDP, exports and manufacturing are all rising, and so, too, are home prices. That has led Singapore to boast the highest concentration of millionaires anywhere on the planet. Among its very rich: Ng Teng Fong, a real estate tycoon, and Wee Cho Yaw, who runs United Overseas Bank, one of Singapore’s big lenders.
See full article from DailyFinance
Another telling report shows how our income gap has been widening over the past few years. Singapore has the biggest income gap among 23 rich nations surveyed in the book, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
Read that report here, at the Online Citizen.
It’s probably all the property owners, riding on the boom in property prices. 90% of Singapore lived in their own or family owned property, so that’s a good thing i suppose?
That’s what I thought too, but the Straits Times reports it as excluding properties? I was a bit confused by it:
‘The study by consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) also showed that Singapore had the highest concentration of millionaires.
There are 11.4 per cent of households here owning more than US$1 million – defined as those with investable assets of more than US$1 million, exclusive of property and items like art.’
are the millionaires then the speculators who sold their properties in the boom period?
Oh I didn’t read the fine print. MAN!!!! WHO ARE THEY!