You're Richer Than You Think!

Greg Mankiw points to this article (emphasis mine):

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER).

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.

The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

Mankiw then adds:

From a global perspective, if you have net worth of more than $61,000, you are rich.

Click here to find out how you compare to the rest of the world in terms of income.

Even as a graduate student, I am in the top 10% globally in terms of wealth (if I include my retirement savings) and close to the top 10% in terms of income. When I was an engineer, I was well into the top 1% in terms of income and expect to re-enter that segment upon graduation from my PhD program.

Pretty sobering, isn't it? Remind me to stop complaining the next time I'm eating my ramen noodles!

P.S. -- Here's a map from the report showing the distribution of the world's wealth:

(click image for larger view)

I wonder how different this map would look if it showed median instead of mean wealth per capita?