Wealth Global wealth is growing - Switzerland defends top spot

Last year, the global population became wealthier overall. As a result, global wealth recovered from the decline in 2022.

In the "Global Wealth Report" published by the major bank UBS on Wednesday, Switzerland once again took the top spot.

The world became richer in 2023, with this being observed across all wealth classes, UBS wrote in the annual study. UBS experts believe that the rise of people into higher wealth brackets is likely to be even more pronounced around the globe in the long term.

Overall, global assets grew by 4.2 percent in US dollar terms in the friendly stock market year 2023 and in the wake of weakening inflation, following a decline of 3 percent in the previous year. According to the study, the decline at that time was primarily due to currency effects and the strong dollar.

In regional terms, the upturn in wealth creation was led by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with an increase of 4.8%. Assets also increased significantly in Asia-Pacific (+4.4%), while the Americas were not quite able to keep pace with growth of 3.6%.

Switzerland defended its top position in the country ranking. The average wealth of an adult in this country (minus debts) amounted to 709,612 dollars. The two other top positions remained in the hands of Luxembourg (607,524 dollars) and Hong Kong (582,000).

According to the report, wealth measured in US dollars in Switzerland last year had recovered as well as it had worldwide. But appearances are deceptive, as the value measured in local currency has shrunk by almost 6 percent.