Wealth per adult: India growing 2X that of global average but still 1/5th in real terms

• In India, wealth per adult is at $16,500, while the global average is at $84,718.
• Net worth per adult in India rose 12.5% in 2022, when adjusted for exchange depreciation.
• The top 1% holds around 40.4% of the total wealth in India.

Indian wealth per adult has been growing 8.7% per annum from the start of the millennium and was at $16,500 by the end of 2022. As per the Global Wealth Report by UBS, the pace of growth is almost twice that of the global annual growth of 4.6%.

India has a lot of catching up to do — as the average wealth of an adult globally is $84,718. The wealth per adult of China has been growing at a much faster pace of 14%. “Thus average wealth in China is now approaching the overall global level, while India remains well behind,” according to UBS.

In 2022, however, India performed better than China — as the latter saw total assets per adult fall for the first time in the 21st century. India fared slightly better – with net worth per adult rising 2.8%.

However, if the experienced exchange rate depreciation that India has seen is taken away, its assets per adult rose 12.5%.

In 2022, the value of non-financial assets rose 5.4% while financial assets rose by 1%. The report pegs India’s total wealth in 2022 at $15,365 billion.

Rising inequality

With more wealth, comes more inequality. Wealth inequality was already high in India in 2000 – with the top 1% holding around a third of the wealth — at 33.2%. In 2022, these levels reached 40.4%, and remained more or less unchanged from 2021.

“While the bulk of Indian citizens are located in the bottom half of the global distribution, high wealth inequality and a huge population means that significant numbers of Indian citizens also occupy the top wealth echelons,” the report said.

India has 849,000 dollar millionaires and the country accounts for more than 1% of the world’s dollar millionaires.

It also has 5,480 ultra high-networth individuals (UHNWs) who hold over $100 million in net worth. India, along with Brazil and Russia recorded the biggest increases in the number of such individuals, UBS said.

While wealth inequality rose in the early years of this century in the US, India and China – these countries are exceptions, it says.

“Wealth inequality declined in most countries, reflecting a rise in the importance of non-financial assets. After the global financial crisis, rapid growth of financial assets caused wealth inequality to rise in most countries until 2015, when it began to level out,” UBS says.