There are a lot of different ways to measure wealth, from assets, savings, and investments. How do you measure the wealth of individual countries? The TitleMax.com team looked at data from Credit Suisse’s annual Global Wealth Databook and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to determine which countries around the world have the highest median wealth.
Median wealth divides the population of an area into two groups: half of the group above the median and the other half below the median. Some consider this to be a more accurate representation of wealth than the mean (average) as the outliers don’t skew the numbers. If there are a large number or residents on the higher or lower end of wealth, they could alter the average in a way that does not accurately represent the total population.
The following are the top 10 countries on the list:
- Iceland: median wealth of $375,735
- Luxembourg: median wealth of $350,271
- Australia: median wealth of $273,903
- Belgium: median wealth of $267,887
- New Zealand: median wealth of $231,257
- Hong Kong: median wealth of $202,376
- Denmark: median wealth of $171,175
- Switzerland: median wealth of $168,084
- Canada: median wealth of $151,248
- Netherlands: median wealth of $142,994
Iceland tops the list at a median wealth of more than $375,000. There are 257,000 adults living in the country and the mean wealth is $457,795. There are many reasons why Iceland may be so wealthy. The country is very small and is subject to economic volatility. Tourism plays a big part in the nation’s economy, and they have a diversified workforce. They generally have low unemployment rates and are one of the world’s leaders in geothermal and hydropower.
Are any of the countries on the list of highest median wealth surprising to you?
