CSRI Global Wealth Report 2014

Although the global economic environment has remained challenging, total global wealth has grown to a new record, rising by USD 20.1 trillion between mid-2013 and mid-2014, an increase of 8.3%, to reach USD263 trillion – more than twice the USD 117 trillion recorded for the year 2000. With an 11.4% year-on-year increase, wealth  creation was particularly strong in North America, where it now stands at USD91 trillion, or 34.7% of total wealth. Europe made the second largest contribution, with we…

Although the global economic environment has remained challenging, total global wealth has grown to a new record, rising by USD 20.1 trillion between mid-2013 and mid-2014, an increase of 8.3%, to reach USD263 trillion – more than twice the USD 117 trillion recorded for the year 2000. With an 11.4% year-on-year increase, wealth  creation was particularly strong in North America, where it now stands at USD91 trillion, or 34.7% of total wealth. Europe made the second largest contribution, with wealth increasing 10.6% to usD 85.2 trillion. In both regions, capital markets were a key source of wealth growth: equity market capitalization grew by 22.6% in the United States, while Canada, France and Germany all recorded gains close to 30%. 

We devote this year’s special topic to wealth inequality. The changing distribution of wealth is now one of the most widely discussed and controversial of topics, not least owing to Thomas Piketty’s recent account of long-term trends around inequality. We are confident that the depth of our data will make a valuable contribution to the inequality debate.