If you lined all Australians along a line from richest to poorest, and then took the guy in the middle and compared him with other "middle" guys in other countries, Australia is the richest nation according to Credit Suisse's Wealth Report released today. Here's some of the article from The Australian today:
Our wealth is also more evenly distributed across the population, the report said in Sydney, although we have a well above average reliance on real estate which forms 59 per cent of gross household assets. That's second only to Norway.
The report found that our mean wealth per adult is just over $US400,000 each, second only to Switzerland, and that there are 1.12 million people in Australia classed as US dollar millionaires, although that number includes all net assets including housing and superannuation.
The median wealth number of Australia is $US219,505 per person, the highest in the world. The median number in any range is the middle one whereas the mean is the average of all. The fact that Australia tops the median number is a reflection of the fact that Australian wealth is more equally distributed that in some other countries such as Switzerland, said David McDonald, chief investment strategist Australia for Credit Suisse Private Banking.
""The top ten per cent of Australians own 50 per cent of the wealth," he said, "which compares with the top 10 per cent around the world owning an average of 86 per cent and the top ten per cent in the US owning 74 per cent."
The report, compiled out of Europe, said that there are 1.76 million Australians who are in the top one per cent of global wealth holders, accounting for 3.8 per cent of that group despite this country having only 0.4 per cent of the world's adult population
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wealth/aussies-top-words-wealthiest-per-capita-credit-suisse-report-finds/story-e6frgac6-1226735467535#sthash.nJBQcZ4J.dpuf