South Africa home to 22,700 millionaire households, says BCG

Nearly 18 million households worldwide control more than $1 million in wealth each, almost 23,000 of which are based in South Africa, as illustrated in a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

In its annual Global Wealth Report, BCG monitors the growth of international wealth, using affluent and High-net-worth households as the unit for measurement. This year, the consulting firm reports that nearly 18 million households controlled private wealth of $1 million in 2016, which is approximately 1.5 million more than 2015.

South Africa ranked 58th out of the 93 countries covered in the report, being home to 22,700 millionaire households in 2016. The number of millionaire individuals in South Africa is nearly twice as high, as revealed in research conducted by commercial and residential property group Knight Frank in 2017. According to Knight Frank, South Africa had 40,400 millionaires in 2016, displaying a significant rise from 2015, when the figure was 38,500. The number is further projected to rise to 52,500 over the next decade till 2026.

The BCG report revealed a number of interesting features in the global wealth figures as well. As per BCG estimate, cumulative global personal wealth amounted to $167 trillion in 2016. Strikingly, the world’s millionaires, who comprise a mere 1 per cent of the population, control 45% of the personal wealth on the globe, which has increased from 44% in 2015.