The world's middle class had a population of 664 million in 2015, with their net worth amounting to $80.7 trillion and accounting for 32 percent of global wealth, according to the sixth edition of the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report released by Credit Suisse Research Institute on October 13, 2015.
The report chooses the United States as the benchmark country for defining the middle class in other countries in terms of a wealth band rather than an income range.
To be the middle class, adults in other countries should have similar local purchasing power as it of those in the United States with wealth between $50,000 and $500,000.
A ranking of wealth holdings of middle class by country worldwide is listed by the report, and the top 10 of them are as follows.
Spain has 21 million middle-class adults that accounts for 55.8 percent of all. The wealth of $2.2 trillion held by them represents 52.4 percent of country wealth and 0.9 percent of world wealth.
The middle class in Australia, amounting to 11 million, accounts for 66.1 percent of all Australian adults, which makes it first at the ranking of every country's middle-class share of all adults. Their wealth is $2.5 trillion in total, rising by $1.7 trillion from 2000.
Accounting for 47.8 percent of Canadian adults, the country's middle class amounts to 13 million and holds $2.7 trillion wealth in total. From 2000 to 2015, the number and wealth of them have increased by 3.2 million and $1.6 trillion respectively.
Middle class in Italy has a number of 29 million accounting for 59.7 percent of all Italian adults and a wealth of $4.7 trillion accounting for 47.3 percent of country wealth and 1.9 percent of world wealth. Both the number and wealth of them does not change a lot between 2002 and 2015.
28 million German middle-class adults account for 42.4 percent of the country’s adults and have a total wealth of $4.8 trillion that accounts 39.9 percent of country wealth and 1.9 percent of world wealth. And there is a rise of $2.1 trillion in wealth of middle class from 2000 to 2015.
Middle class shares 49.2 percent of adults in France, growing from 22.7 million adults with a wealth of $2.3 trillion in 2000 to 29.9 million adults with a wealth of $4.9 trillion in 2015.
United Kingdom: $6.2 trillion57.4 percent of adults in the United Kingdom belong to the middle class. They have a number of 28 million and a total wealth of $6.2 trillion that accounts 39.7 percent of country wealth and 2.5 percent of world wealth.
From 2000 to 2015, the number of middle-class adults in China has increased to 109 million with a rise of 38 million, ranking first worldwide. And the total wealth of them reaches $7.3 trillion in 2015, rising by $5.6 trillion from 2000. In addition, the wealth of the middle class and beyond in China has a six-fold increase from $2.1 trillion in 2000 to $15.4 trillion in 2015.
Having a total wealth of $9.7 trillion, 59.5 percent of adults in Japan are qualified as middle class. Decreasing by $420 billion from 2000 to 2015, their wealth accounts for 49 percent of wealth of the country and 3.9 percent of world wealth.
United States: $16.8 trillionAlthough outnumbered by China in the population of the middle class, the United States still ranks first at the list of middle class wealth. In 2015, the country's 92 million middle-class adults have a total wealth of $16.8 trillion accounting for 6.7 percent of world wealth.
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