Switzerland stays world's wealthiest per adult, but median wealth plunges 20% as global private wealth rises 10.8% in 2025

Global wealth climbs at fastest pace since 2017

Global private wealth grew by 10.8% in US dollar terms in 2025, a sharp acceleration from 4.6% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2023. The UBS report attributes the jump to strong financial markets and tangible assets such as real estate. Growth was fastest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at 17.5%, partly reflecting the depreciation of the US dollar. The Americas rose 8.5% and the Asia-Pacific region 5.9%. More than half of global private wealth remains concentrated in the United States and China. Nearly one million people worldwide became dollar millionaires last year, almost half of them in the US, followed by China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

Swiss average wealth stays on top while median sinks

Swiss adults held an average wealth of $910,382 in 2025, retaining the global number one spot ahead of the United States ($696,277) and Luxembourg ($654,732). Median wealth, however, dropped to $145,555 from $182,248 in 2024, a 20% decline that pushed Switzerland down to eighth place on the median ranking. Luxembourg led that table with $394,005, followed by Belgium ($277,166) and Australia ($210,783). In Switzerland, 13.1% of the adult population (944,000 people) are dollar millionaires, controlling 69% of all private wealth in the country. Over the period 2000 to 2025, average real wealth per Swiss adult rose by just over 11%, while real median wealth fell by nearly 15%.

Drivers of widening inequality

UBS economist James Mazeau said the wealthy are increasing their assets much faster than the rest of the population. Experts point to equity markets as a key driver. Economist Therese Faessler noted:

We are living in the Middle Ages. Today's shareholders are the landowners of the Middle Ages, and employees without shares are the serfs.

University of Lausanne economics professor Marius Brühlhart added that Swiss taxes on corporate profits, wealth and inheritances have been cut successively since the 1990s, while taxes on income and consumption have hardly changed. This means the tax burden on an ordinary worker is much higher than on those who already own assets or inheritances. Inflation, too, advantages shareholders while eroding the position of those without assets.

Country snapshots

Germany counted roughly 2.6 million dollar millionaires in 2025 (3.9% of adults), holding about 46% of total private wealth in the country, while 9.8% of German adults had less than $10,000. Turkey was the world's second-fastest-growing country for dollar millionaires, with a 6.4% increase. Globally, the number of millionaires rose by about 1.5%, with fortunes above $5 million growing particularly strongly. The UBS report cautions that average figures can be misleading: a small group of very wealthy people can easily inflate a nation's average wealth and create a false impression of broad prosperity.