Mumbai: The UBS Global Wealth Report 2025 has highlighted a widening wealth gap across the world, stating that while global personal wealth has continued to grow, inequality has increased since 2020. The report said median wealth declined in most markets, even as average wealth rose.
Analysing 56 markets that account for more than 92% of the world’s wealth, the Swiss bank found that personal wealth recorded its fastest growth in recent years, creating nearly one million new millionaires in US dollar terms.
Wealth rises, but inequality deepens
According to the report, total personal wealth increased by 10.8% in 2025, compared with 4.6% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2023. UBS attributed the sharp rise to strong financial markets.
The report said there were “more millionaires than ever, everywhere” in 2025. The United States accounted for almost half of the increase, with more than 440,000 people becoming new millionaires in US dollar terms.
In Europe, wealth in US dollar terms grew at a faster pace, largely because of last year's depreciation of the dollar against the euro.
Despite the rise in average wealth, the report warned that inequality has intensified since 2020. Median wealth, which better represents the middle of the wealth distribution, declined in most countries, highlighting a widening gap between the wealthiest individuals and the broader population.
Asia-Pacific trails global growth
Wealth growth in the Asia-Pacific region stood at just over 5.9% last year, lagging behind other regions. The report attributed the slower growth to currency effects and market dynamics, while noting that the region's long-term outlook remains positive.
Most high-net-worth individuals in the region are concentrated in Greater China and Southeast Asia.
The United States further expanded its share of global personal wealth to 35.7% in the UBS sample. Western Europe accounted for just under 22%, followed by Greater China at 18.5%, although its share was slightly lower than in 2024.
Together, the United States and Greater China continue to account for more than half of the world's personal wealth.
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India among most unequal countries
The report ranked the UAE as the world's most unequal country based on the Gini coefficient, with a score of 0.82. Russia also recorded a score of 0.82, followed by South Africa and Brazil at 0.81, Saudi Arabia at 0.78, and the United States at 0.77.
Sweden and India followed the top six countries, each recording a Gini score of 0.74.
The Gini coefficient measures the distribution of wealth within a population on a scale of 0 to 1. A lower score indicates a more equal distribution of wealth, while a higher score reflects greater inequality.
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