Australia nudges Switzerland off top of global median wealth list

[Mighty AU]

It might not feel like it to a lot of Australians, but we have just overtaken Switzerland as the wealthiest people in the world.

In its Global Wealth Report 2018, Credit Suisse puts the median adult wealth of Australians at $US191,453 ($264,903).

That means half of Australians are wealthier than that, and half are not.

Credit Suisse says the typical Australian's position is thanks to high average wealth — courtesy of our compulsory superannuation system and high property prices — combined with relatively low wealth inequality.

The report also notes that Australia's reliance on property prices (60 per cent of our assets are "non-financial") is higher than a lot of other places.

Globally, the median wealth per adult is $US4,210 ($5,820).

...

See the graph at Chart of the day

tl;dr Australia has the highest median wealth per capita in the world thanks to high property values and superannuation (compulsory retirement savings accounts).

[Download]

Yeah, not shocked super and obscene house prices are the cause. I guess we'll go quite a bit down the list when the housing market crashes.

[Sgt Muffin]

I'd have thought the cause was our high elderly population who have cashed in on their supers.

[Sableye]

"why are the darn socialists always richer than us!" says nobody who should care.

[Samg381]

I suppose this may be a case of simply shifting the scale and having the associated metrics follow.