Which Country Has the Biggest Wealth Gap
The United States consistently ranks among the countries with the largest wealth gaps when measured by the Gini coefficient and top-1% share of total wealth. According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, the top 1% of U.S. households own roughly 30% to 35% of all household wealth, while the bottom 50% hold a much smaller share. The U.S. Gini coefficient for wealth typically falls between 0.80 and 0.85, placing it among the highest among advanced economies. For context, the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and the World Inequality Database provide comparable cross-country figures that highlight how extreme concentration in the U.S. compares with other nations. More recent data from the Federal Reserve and the World Inequality Database confirm that the wealth gap in the United States remains wider than in most peer economies. Forbes analysis of the U.S. wealth gap
Other countries with notable wealth concentration include Switzerland, where a small share of households hold a large portion of financial assets, and the United Kingdom, where the Resolution Foundation tracks rising gaps between median and top-end wealth. In emerging markets, South Africa often appears at the top of global inequality rankings due to historical patterns of asset ownership and labor market segmentation. The World Inequality Lab and OECD data show that South Africa's Gini coefficient for net wealth is among the highest in the world, driven by uneven access to property, education, and capital. While the U.S. stands out for the sheer scale of billionaire wealth, countries like South Africa illustrate how structural factors can produce extreme gaps even with lower absolute wealth levels. OECD data on inequality
How the Wealth Gap Is Measured
Key Metrics and Definitions
The Gini coefficient is the most common summary statistic, ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (maximum inequality). Wealth Gini focuses on net assets, including real estate, financial investments, and business equity, minus debts. The top 10% or top 1% share of total wealth is another widely used measure that highlights how much of a country's assets are concentrated in a small number of households. The Federal Reserve's Distributional Financial Accounts provide detailed U.S. data on these shares, while the World Inequality Database aggregates national estimates for cross-country comparison. Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts
Median wealth versus mean wealth reveals the shape of the distribution, with large gaps between the two indicating a heavy right tail of wealthy households. The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report uses this approach to rank countries by wealth concentration and inequality. In the United States, the mean wealth per adult is significantly higher than the median, reflecting the outsized holdings of the richest households. The OECD and World Bank also publish adjusted Gini and percentile ratios that allow fair comparisons across countries with different population sizes and economic structures. Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report
Drivers of Extreme Wealth Concentration
Capital Income, Asset Prices, and Policy
Rising returns on capital, including equities, private equity, and real estate, have widened the wealth gap in the United States and other advanced economies. The SEC's filings show that a small number of individuals and families hold large stakes in publicly traded companies, while private markets concentrate even more wealth