S. Korean millionaires increase by 140,000 to 1.05 million in 2020

The number of South Koreans with assets worth over $1 million, or nearly 1.1 billion won, increased by 140,000 on-year to 1.05 million in 2020, accounting for 2 percent of the worldwide total.

Last year, there were 5.2 million people worldwide that became millionaires, pushing the total to 56.1 million.

It was the first time that millionaires made up 1 percent of the world’s adult population, according to the “Global Wealth Report 2021,” released by Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse.

The US had the most number of new millionaires in 2020 with 1.73 million, trailed by Germany with 630,000, with Austria coming in at third with 392,000, and Japan ranking fourth with 390,000.

Experts attributed the increase in the number of millionaires globally to ample liquidity caused by governments’ monetary easing policies to deal with the impact of COVID-19 impact, which flowed into asset markets, such as stock and real estate.

Surging asset prices pushed the total global wealth by 7.4 percent to $418.3 trillion last year, while median wealth per adult jumped 6 percent on-year.

However, the pandemic is estimated to have pushed 88 million to 115 million people into a state of extreme poverty, where a person lives on less than $1.90 a day.