Global household wealth — basically, total assets — declined in 2022. That’s according to a new report from UBS, the Swiss financial giant. At the same time, global wealth inequality also fell.

Global wealth data gives us a sense of where wealth is concentrated. 

“The gaps are so enormous that for the same person having such different experiences in life is difficult to defend,” said Branko Milanovic, an economist at the City University of New York.

Part of what’s behind the narrowing wealth gap is China’s rapid economic growth over the last 15 years or so. 

“And it was not solely China,” Milanovic said. “It was also India, Indonesia, Thailand — all the countries that are relatively poor that have grown very fast.”

But the biggest reason is global wealth’s decline. People at the top lost money in the stock market, noted Adam Hollowell at Duke’s Center on Social Equity.

“Financial assets in North America depreciated significantly in 2022,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that the material circumstances of the global poor have changed.”

The report says that after dipping in 2022, global household wealth is expected to rise nearly 40% over the next five years.

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