With 54 per cent of the country’s wealth owned by millionaires, India is the second most “unequal” country in the world after Russia, according the latest report of the Johannesburg-based wealth research firm New World Wealth.
India is among the 10 richest countries in the world with a total individual wealth of $5,600 billion, the average Indian is quite poor, the report said. "The higher the proportion the more unequal the country is. For instance, if millionaires control over 50 per cent of a country's wealth, then there is very little space for a meaningful middle class," the report added.
Globally, Russia is the most unequal country where millionaires control over 62 per cent of the nation's total wealth.
In what might come as a surprise to many, Japan ranks as the most equal country, with millionaires controlling only 22 per cent of total wealth and even the US is "surprisingly" equal, with millionaires controlling around 32 per cent of the nation's total wealth. "This is surprising low considering all the negative press that the US gets in terms of income inequality," the report observed. Britain is just a bit less equal than the US; its millionaires control around 35 per cent of the total wealth there.
Russia also tops the list of a country's wealth held by billionaires (with net assets of $1 billion or more) with 26 per cent of the total Russian wealth held by this category of high net worth individuals. Once again, Japan is the most equal in this group, with billionaires controlling only three per cent of the total wealth of the country.