The total net wealth of the entire world comes to a staggering $431 trillion (£310tn), according to a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It added up financial wealth, such as investments, and real assets, including property, and subtracted liabilities such as debt. This works out at an average $54,556 (£39k) per person, but the wealth of the world isn't shared out equally. Click or scroll through to discover where the wealth is distributed and why global wealth is on the rise despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial wealth, which includes assets such as stocks, funds and bonds, makes up the largest chunk of the world's total wealth at over half. The world’s financial wealth reached a record total of $250 trillion (£180tn) in 2020, which was an 8.3% increase on the previous year. People in North America have the highest amount of financial wealth, holding $111 trillion (£80tn), followed by Western Europeans with $52.6 trillion (£37.9tn) and then people in Asia with $46.8 trillion (£33.7tn).

The total global value of real assets, such as property, was $235 trillion (£169tn) in 2020 according to BCG. People in Asia hold the largest amount of real assets, at $84 trillion (£60.6tn), which is 64% of their region's overall wealth. By contrast, in North America the amount invested in real assets is just 28% of total wealth at $43.7 trillion (£31.5tn). Western Europeans own real assets worth $63.8 trillion (£46bn).

Over a quarter of the world’s total wealth – approximately $126 trillion (£90.6tn) – is owned by high net worth individuals, who are defined as anybody who is worth more than $1 million (£719k). High net worth individuals own approximately 40% of the world’s total financial wealth.

Despite the huge economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global crisis has helped the world’s wealth to grow in a number of ways. For example, as countries went into lockdown many people stopped spending on the likes of travel and eating out, and were suddenly able to save larger portions of their disposable income. There was a 10.6% spike in net savings in 2020 – the largest annual rise in 20 years – according to BCG.

Many people invested these extra savings into stocks and investment funds, prompting an 11.5% rise in capital market investments in 2020 compared to the previous year. Those assets then benefitted from the huge bounce in the stock markets following the massive dip of April 2020, and boosted the world’s overall wealth in the process. The recovery most boosted the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest people, who are more likely to have their money in these kinds of financial products.

This allowed the fortunes of the world’s richest to skyrocket, despite the economic havoc wrought by the pandemic. For example, Elon Musk, CEO of electric car-maker Tesla, has seen his wealth grow by an astonishing $143.1 billion (£102.8bn) since the start of 2020, as of 22 June 2021. 

And the world’s richest are set to keep getting richer, with BCG forecasting that ultra high net worthers will see their fortunes grow faster than any other group over the next five years, at an average annual rate of 6.7%. Ultra high net worthers are defined as anybody with more than $100 million (£71.9m), and there are currently around 60,000 in the world. This moneyed collection of people currently controls around $22 trillion (£15.8tn), or 15%, of the world’s financial wealth. 

The most exclusive group of ultra high net worthers is the billionaires club, which boasts 2,755 mega-rich individuals, according to Forbes. They have seen their collective wealth surge from $8 trillion (£5.6tn) last year to $13.1 trillion (£9.4tn) in 2021. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for example, has seen his personal fortune inflate by an astonishing $84.65 billion (£60.8bn) since the start of 2020. Even those who have made huge donations to charity continue to see their wealth soar, such as writer MacKenzie Scott, who has given around $8.6 billion (£6.2bn) to charity since her divorce from Bezos in 2019.

The number of billionaires will increase in the next half a decade, according to BCG, with the mega-wealthy set to profit as the world’s economies recover from the pandemic. The United States currently boasts more billionaires than any other country, with a total of 724, according to Forbes. Pictured are Jim, Alice and Rob Walton, three of the seven billionaire members of the family that owns the Walmart empire that has made the Waltons America’s richest clan. China is in second place with a total of 698 billionaires, when including Hong Kong and Macau, and India comes in at third with 140 billionaires.

China is set to steam into first place in the next eight years as the country with the most billionaires. The economic powerhouse will see the assets of its ultra wealthy individuals reach $10.4 trillion (£7.5tn) by 2029 if the country continues its current growth rate of 13% year on year. Pictured is China’s richest person, Zhong Shanshan, who is worth an incredible $69 billion (£49.6bn) according to Forbes. It's predicted that America's richest people will have accumulated total wealth of $9.9 trillion (£7.2tn) by the same year.

The world’s total net worth will surpass $500 trillion (£359tn) before 2025, according to BCG forecasts. Within that, financial wealth is estimated to grow by $65 trillion (£46.7tn) between 2020 and 2025.

An increase in global wealth will only widen the gap between the world’s richest and poorest, according to BCG research. The level of inequality between low- and high-income nations will worsen, as will the disparity between the haves and have-nots within individual countries. This gap has only worsened during the pandemic, and inefficient COVID-19 vaccine rollout schemes in poorer nations will only push those countries further behind as wealthy nations get ahead, bolstering their economies – and the fortunes of their ultra wealthy individuals – in the process.

Discover the billionaires who have made a fortune during the pandemic