- Wealth estimates derived from 1998 Federal estate tax return data shows that more than 6.5 million individuals in the United States had gross assets of $625,000 or more.
- These individuals represented about 3.4 percent of the U.S. adult population.
- As a group, top wealth holders owned more than $11.1 trillion in total assets or 32.6 percent of the total U.S. personal asset holdings.
- California remains the state with the largest number of millionaires, while
Connecticut was the state with the greatest per capita concentration of millionaires.
Source: IRS Issues Winter 2003 Statistics of Income Bulletin
IR-2003-53, April 18, 2003
Вышепомянтуая цифра в 11 триллионов долларов оценки суммарных богатств трех с половиною процента населения Америки по-видимому относится к "мировым константам". Во всяком случае такое впечатление может сложиться от того, что по самым разным источникам она периодичеки называется в разных же и контекстах. Потому и может показаться что она только и не претерпела - на фоне значительных колебаний всего остального в стране - сколько значительных изменений за последние 6 лет то уж точно:
- The number of millionaire households in the United States grew in 2004 to a record 7.5 million, up 21 percent in one year, according to surveys cited in the May 25 Wall Street Journal. This very wealthy segment of the population now controls an astounding $11 trillion in assets.
Source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jun2005/mill-j08.shtml
Приведем в этой связи уже теперь тогда и более общий взгляд на обсуждаемый в данном сообщении социальный срез населения по географически более широкому его контексту - фрагмент из ежегодного отчета "Мерил Линч" (Merrill Lynch and Capgemini Report):
- NEW YORK, June 15, 2004 — ... were an estimated 7.7 million high net worth individuals in the world at the end of 2003, up 7.5% or a net 500,000 people compared with the previous year, according to the 2004 World Wealth Report published today by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.
The total global wealth of these high net worth individuals (HNWIs) climbed 7.7% to $28.8 trillion, according to the survey.
HNWIs are people with financial assets of at least US$1million,
excluding home real estate.
The trend for continued increases in worldwide wealth should stay intact with the World Wealth Report predicting HNWI financial wealth to grow by 7% per annum and to exceed $40 trillion by 2008.
The ranks of HNWIs in the United States stood at 2,270,000 at the end of 2003, up 14% or a net 272,000 compared with the previous year. China , at 12%, and India , at 22%, also scored solid gains in HNWIs last year, while Europe , the Middle East and Latin America posted more modest increases.
“As in previous years, high net worth individuals were quick to respond to global trends affecting their ability to preserve and grow wealth. They benefited from a strong stock market rally and solid, global economic growth. In particular, wealthy investors in the U.S. , China and India were able to capitalize on these trends despite a great deal of geopolitical uncertainty,” said James Gorman, president of Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client group.
Europe , Latin America and the Middle East lagged
While the ranks of the wealthy swelled in Asia and North America , Europe showed a more modest increase, with the number of HNWIs rising 2.4% to 2.6 million. Wealth in the region climbed to $8.7 trillion. Europe as a whole continues to sustain lower average HNWI wealth than North America , primarily due to restrictive income-tax policies which impede the ability to accumulate personal wealth. Spain , Russia and the Czech Republic were notable exceptions where the wealthy investor count increased more rapidly.
Latin America fared better in 2003 than it did the previous year, but growth was relatively low both in HNWI numbers and wealth despite the impressive gains in equity markets across the region. Latin American HNWIs, whose ranks edged up 1.3%, continued to have the highest average wealth per HNWI of any major region.
The number of HNWIs in the Middle East rose 2.4% last year.
Source: Merrill Lynch, Capgemini 2004 World Wealth Report