Canadians get rich faster than Americans: report

Canadians love beating the Americans, and last year we beat them at their favourite sport: getting rich.

According to Capgemini SE’s 2017 World Wealth Report, the Canadian population of high net worth individuals — defined as those with at least US$1 million in investable assets — rose 11.3 per cent in 2016, to 357,000 from 321,000. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the number of wealthy people grew 7.6 per cent.

Canada, Russia and Brazil all “dramatically reversed course” compared to last year, when the number of wealthy people in those countries declined, according to the report. The global average increase in high net worth individuals was 7.5 per cent in 2016.

“Global 2016 (high net worth individual) growth rates accelerated significantly,” Capgemini said in a release. “(High-networth individuals’) wealth continues to be on track to exceed US$100 trillion by 2025 ... as North America and Europe caught up with Asia-Pacific growth rates in 2016.”

More people joined the ranks of the rich in Russia than any other country in 2016, with the nation adding 19.7 per cent more wealthy people. Indonesia and the Netherlands were tied for second place with a growth rate of 13.7 per cent.

Brazil also saw doubledigit increases in both the population of high-networth individuals and their wealth after seeing declines the year before. The report credits strong equity market growth and moderate real estate expansion in the country for the gains.

Canada is in eighth place in a ranking of countries by total number of high net worth individuals, ahead of Australia and behind Switzerland.

The U.S. still has a clear lead with 4.8 million wealthy people, with Japan’s 2.9 million coming in a distant second.

Wealth is becoming more evenly distributed among nations, however. In 2016, 59 per cent of new high-net-worth individuals came from the top four countries, down from 81 per cent the year before.

The rich continued to get richer in 2016. The number of ultra high-net-worth individuals, or people with more than US$30 million in investable assets, grew 8.3 per cent globally in 2016.

“With these gains, (ultrawealthy people) once again took on their traditional role as the main drivers of (high net worth individual growth,” the report said.

“Though they make up only 1.0 per cent of all (high-net-worth individuals), (ultra-wealthy people) account for more than onethird (34.5 per cent) of all (high net worth individual) wealth.”

It predicts high-networth people will have amassed US$100 trillion in wealth by 2025. Their wealth is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 5.9 per cent over the next 18 years.