The good news: The world got a lot richer last year. The bad news: You probably didn’t.
Personal wealth measured in US dollars grew by 11% last year, according to a new report from UBS, well-outpacing the growth of the prior two years.
That wealth creation, however, was concentrated, with the top 1.5% of the population holding nearly 50% of the world’s wealth. Fueled by strong financial markets, the gains benefited the wealthy, specifically those with more than $5 million in assets, and widened the divide between the world’s richest and everyone else.
That’s illustrated by the gap between average and median wealth across most regions.
The US ranks second in the world in average wealth per adult and 28th in median wealth, for example. From 2020 to 2025, average wealth per adult in the US grew 10% to $696,277, while median wealth per adult fell 20% to $68,998. The country has the sixth-highest wealth inequality score in the world, according to the report.
“A small group of particularly wealthy individuals can easily boost the average wealth of a whole nation, for example, thereby making its inhabitants look better off than they really are,” the report says.
While UBS’s report counts wealth through the end of 2025, many of these trends are continuing into 2026. doesn’t look like things will improve in 2026.
The US’s K-shaped economy, in which the haves and the have-nots are growing further apart, has held steady this year as the wealthy continue to benefit from a booming stock market. Meanwhile, inflation, including high gas prices, has had an outsize effect on lower-income households. The discrepancy has fueled a backlash against billionaires.
Artificial intelligence, which has already sent ripples throughout the economy, is exacerbating anxieties around wealth creation. And other advancements, including nuclear fusion, mRNA technology, and longevity science, may further alter the wealth landscape.
“They are not quite here yet, but they are coming, and nobody is going to stop them,” Joel Mokyr, a professor of economics and history at Northwestern University, said in the report. “Once they arrive, their impact on society and on the economy may be equally or more important than AI.”
It’s not all doom and gloom. Globally, the percentage of people in the very lowest wealth bracket, those with fewer than $10,000 in assets, continues to shrink. In 2000, nearly 75% of the world’s population had less than $10,000; that number now sits at 41%.
And if you are part of the upward movement, you could soon call yourself a millionaire. Last year, the US minted more than 1,200 millionaires every day.
