Wealth per Adult by Country 2024

It's no secret that there are significant differences between the wealth of some nations and the wealth of others. But there's much more to the story than just rich and poor nations.

Switzerland tops the list with the highest mean wealth per adult, nearly $700,000 in U.S. dollars. That's nearly $40,000 ahead of second place, the tiny European nation of Luxembourg. The United States takes third place with a relatively distant $579,000 per adult, followed by Hong Kong (about $552,000) and Australia (roughly $550,000.) The top 10 are relatively evenly split between North America, Europe, and the Australia/Pacific region, with Hong Kong representing Asia.

Countries with the lowest mean average wealth per adult are mainly located in Africa, led by Sierra Leone with just $799, Burundi with $809, and the Central African Republic with $980. Among the bottom 10, only Haiti, Togo, and Syria are located outside Africa.

A slightly different picture emerges when looking at median wealth, which better measures a typical person's wealth by eliminating those with extremely high or low wealth. By this measure, Iceland comes out on top with over $375,000 per adult, followed once again by Luxembourg at around $350,000. There's a noticeable drop to third and fourth place, with Australia at $273,903 and Belgium at $267,887. Switzerland falls from first to eighth place ($168,084), while the United States drops to 21st with a median wealth per adult of $93,271.

More valuable information can be found by looking at the nations' Gini coefficient percentage, a measure of inequality that ranges from perfect equality at 0% to maximum inequality at 100%. Brunei and the Bahamas have the highest inequality, as measured by this metric, at 90%. Slovakia has the lowest inequality at 51%, followed by Qatar (59%.)

Overall, there's little relationship between the size of a nation and its mean or median wealth per adult. However, the world's two largest countries (China and India) rank close to the middle of the pack, with China outpacing India. The world's smallest nations also cover a wide range from relatively poor Saint Vincent And The Grenadines ($5,823 median wealth for 79,000 adults) to the more moderate Seychelles ($23,190 for 69,000 adults.)