Australia has 30,000 new millionaires

Australia has 30,000 new millionaires

Times may be tough, but Australia’s burgeoning ranks of millionaires continued to swell last year. There are an additional 30,000 new millionaires walking amongst us, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) latest global wealth report. These additional millionaires bring the total number of millionaires in Australia to around 178,000, suggests BSG. Around 1.5 per cent of the workforce are millionaires, or some 0.8 per cent of the total population of 23 million. As a nation, Australia sits 14th on the list of countries with the most millionaire households. Personal wealth in Australia rose by 10.4 per cent in 2012. This is faster than the global average of 7.8 per cent but slower than the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) of 13.8 per cent.    Globally, about one per cent, or 13.8 million, of the world’s households are millionaires. The United States tops the list again, and also has the most billionaires, with 5.88 millionaires calling America home.   Next on the list is Japan, which has close to 1.5 million millionaires and China with 1.3 million, although BCG expects China to surpass its neighbor this year. While the U.S. has the largest number of millionaires, five other places have a higher density of millionaires, BCG says: * Qatar — 14.3 percent * Switzerland — 11.6 percent * Kuwait — 11.5 percent * Hong Kong — 9.4 percent * Singapore — 8.2 percent. The U.S. is expected to remain on top of the BCG list until 2017, although wealth in China is growing at a much faster rate. BCG predicts that over this period total American wealth will move from $39 trillion to $43 trillion, while Chinese wealth will move from $14 trillion to $28 trillion.