Who wants to be a millionaire? Let’s face it, everyone. Who gets to be a millionaire? According to millionaire statistics, more people than you might think. In 2020, the total percentage of the world’s population with $1 million or more in asset value rose above 1% for the first time in history. That’s 56.1 million people in the world with $1 million or more. What’s even more interesting is that the majority of millionaires today are self-made. Unfortunately, that’s not good news for the majority of the global population, 55% of whom are still living on less than $10,000 annually.
Let’s look at some more fascinating stats about millionaires.
Top 10 Millionaire Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
There were 56.1 million millionaires worldwide at the end of 2020.
About 39% of the world’s millionaires are in the United States.
The country with the highest proportion of millionaires relative to the population is Switzerland.
About 70% of millionaires never made six figures during their careers.
Most millionaires did not go to an elite or Ivy League school.
The majority of millionaires in the United States did not receive any inheritance from their parents.
Approximately 8 out of 10 millionaires got to be millionaires by investing in their company’s 401K plan.
A millionaire in the United States has 821% percent of the median American wealth.
The most likely person to become a millionaire is a middle-aged, college-educated Asian person.
Approximately 2% of black families have a net worth of over $1 million.
General Millionaire Statistics
The last few years have been good for millionaires. By the end of 2020, about 1% of the world’s population could call themselves millionaires. A large portion of these millionaires lives in the United States, which is the country with the largest number of millionaires, followed by China. Total wealth in North America rose by about $12.4 trillion in 2020, however about 55% of the world’s adult population still lives in poverty.
There were 56.1 million millionaires worldwide at the end of 2020.
The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report revealed that the number of millionaires expanded by 5.2 million people by the end of 2020, for a total of 56.1 millionaires. This makes the percentage of millionaires in the world about 1% of the total global population.
At the same time, 2.9 billion people (about 55% of all adults in the world) have annual incomes below $10,000.
(Credit Suisse)
About 39% of the world’s millionaires are in the United States.
Of the 56.1 million global millionaires, 22 million of them live in the US. That means that almost 40% of the world’s millionaire population is in the United States. Total wealth in North America in 2020 rose by about $12.4 trillion.
(Credit Suisse)
The United States is the country with the most millionaires.
In 2020, roughly 21,951 people in the United States had a wealth of over $1 million, making the number of millionaires in the US greater than the number in any other country, by a wide margin. The country with the next-largest number of millionaires was China, with 5279 millionaires, followed by Japan, with 3662.
(Statista)
The country with the highest proportion of millionaires relative to the population is Switzerland.
In 2020, 14.9% of the population of Switzerland were millionaires. The country with the next-highest proportion of millionaires is, surprisingly, Australia, with 9.4% of the population. The United States comes third, with the percentage of millionaires in the US around 8.8%. Australia’s proportion may only be that high because the country is not densely populated.
(Statista)
There are almost 7 million people in the US with financial assets worth over $1 million.
In 2020, there were 6.98 million “high net worth” individuals in the United States. A high net worth individual is somebody whose financial assets total over $1 million. As the number of millionaires in the world rose, the number of millionaire households in the US also rose. There are also 11.6 million millionaire households in the United States, an increase of about .5 million since 2019.
(Statista)
2020 marked the first year where 1% of the population were millionaires.
The average net worth of a person in the US is $79,952. However, for the first time ever, in 2020, 1% of the population had crossed the million-dollar mark. It wasn’t just the percentage of millionaires that grew: the category of “ultra-high net worth individuals” (people with multiple millions or even billions of dollars) grew by 24%.
(Investopedia)
How Millionaires Are Made
Contrary to what most people believe, most people who become millionaires get there through a slow and steady incremental generation of wealth through investment. Very few millionaires inherit their wealth, and very few get to be millionaires because of a lottery ticket or some other windfall. Let’s take a look at some more fascinating self-made millionaire statistics.
Approximately 8 out of 10 millionaires got to be millionaires by investing in their company’s 401K plan.
A survey by Ramsey Solutions revealed that 80% of millionaires in the United States invested in their company’s 401K plans, and that was the key to their financial success. Three out of four of those also invested outside their company’s 401K.
(Ramsey Solutions)
The majority of millionaires in the United States did not receive any inheritance from their parents.
A popular misconception about millionaires is that they are born, not made. However, a survey found that 79% of millionaires in America reported that they received no inheritance at all from their parents. This statistic means that the percentage of self-made millionaires in the US is about 80%. One in five millionaires (20%) received some inheritance, while 3% received an inheritance of $1 million or more.
(Ramsey Solutions)
About 84% of millionaires have a college degree.
Education seems to be a critical component of what makes a millionaire, with almost 85% of millionaires having some form of a college education. One in three millionaires funded their own college education. A good education seems to greatly increase someone’s chances of becoming a millionaire.
About 76% of millionaires stated that they were raised in an environment where high academic achievement was important.
(Ramsey Solutions)
Most millionaires did not go to an elite or Ivy League school.
While the vast majority of millionaires are college-educated, it appears that where they were educated is less important than the degree itself. About two-thirds (62%) of millionaires went to state or public universities. Only 8% went to Ivy League schools. So while getting an education is an important step on the road to becoming a millionaire, going to an Ivy League school will not necessarily increase your odds of becoming a millionaire.
(Ramsey Solutions)
About 70% of millionaires never made six figures during their careers.
You may think that in order to become a millionaire, you need to make six figures or even more. That is a misconception. The majority of millionaires surveyed did not have high-salaried positions, in fact, only 31% of millionaires averaged over $100,000 annually during the course of their careers.
(Ramsey Solutions)
Millionaires are most likely to work as accountants or lawyers.
Only about 15% of millionaires are in senior-level or executive positions like CEO or CFO. The finance industry has the most millionaires, followed by tech. The top 3 careers reported among millionaires were lawyer, CPA, and engineer.
(Ramsey Solutions)
The Wealth Gap
Although the world’s total wealth is increasing, that doesn’t mean that everyone in the world is getting richer. The global wealth gap is now more pronounced than ever, with over half of the adult population living on less than $10,000 per year, and the majority of America’s wealth held by just a handful of people. Let’s dive into some more statistics to see why a higher number of millionaires doesn’t necessarily mean more wealth for everyone.
About $5 trillion of wealth in the US is now held by just 745 billionaires.
When it comes to analyzing the “average” wealth of an American, the number $79,952 may be deceiving. The percentage of American millionaires may have increased, but more than half the country’s wealth is held by less than 1000 individuals, while the rest (about $3 trillion) is shared by the bottom half of American households. That means that 745 billionaires have almost double the total wealth of the rest of America put together.
(Investopedia)
It is expected that there will be 84 million millionaires globally by the end of 2025.
In just three years, the number of total millionaires in the world is expected to jump from 56.1 million to 84 million, representing an increase of almost 50%. At the same time, the number of multi-millionaires, also known as “ultra-high net worth individuals” is expected to grow by about 60%.
(The Guardian)
A millionaire in the United States has 821% percent of the median American wealth.
In the United States, the median wealth of an American Household was $121,700 in 2020, and more than double that for people aged 65 to 74. The average millionaire has a wealth of approximately 821.7% of the median wealth of an American household.
(CNBC)
About 55% of adults worldwide have less than $10,000 in assets.
Just over half of the world’s adults possess less than $10,000 in assets. Another ~33% have between $10,000 and $100,000 in assets. About 11% have $100,000 to $1 million. Due to China’s quickly emerging middle-class, the number of adults with a wealth of between $100,000 and $1 million is growing fast.
The large disparity between the amount of wealth held by the top 10% of people and the rest of the world is a large part of why some people call for an increase in tax rates for the wealthy.
(Investopedia)
Millionaire Demographics
What kind of person is most likely to become a millionaire? In the US, millionaires still tend to be white, middle-class, and male, or Asian, middle-class and male. Just over 30% of all millionaires are women, and black and Hispanic people are quite unlikely to become millionaires in the States.
About one-third of millionaires in the US are women.
Looking at the number of male vs female millionaires, it appears that men are more likely to become millionaires than women. About 33% of US millionaires are women, while 67% are men. Interestingly, women who do become millionaires get there slightly faster than men. The average age that a woman has $1 million set aside for retirement is 58, while the average age for a man is 59.
(CNBC)
Most people’s chances of becoming a millionaire peak at 61.
Most millionaires become millionaires by carefully managing their money and consistently investing, not through a windfall or inheritance. Thus, it makes sense that the average millionaire would be about retirement age. For black and hispanic people, the odds of them becoming a millionaire after age 61 steeply decrease, while for white people, the odds continue to rise. This is likely because white people are able to invest more in long-term investments earlier in their lives.
(Financial Samurai)
The most likely person to become a millionaire is a middle-aged, college-educated Asian person.
Approximately 22.3% of middle-aged Asian people with at least a bachelor’s degree are predicted to become millionaires. When you continue to break down millionaires by race, the next most-likely person to become a millionaire is middle-aged, college-educated, and white (21.5% of these people are estimated to become millionaires.)
(Financial Samurai)
Approximately 2% of black families have a net worth of over $1 million.
About 340,000 African American families in the United States have a net worth of over $1 million, representing about 2% of the black families in America. Black households hold about one-eighth the wealth of the median white household. More than two out of five black workers earn less than $30,000 per year.
(Black Enterprise)
FAQ
What percentage of the human population are millionaires?
What percent of millionaires are self-made?
What percentage of 30-year-olds are millionaires?
How did millionaires make their money?
What percent of the population has a net worth over $100 million?
Millionaire Stats: The Takeaway
There’s no doubt that the global wealth gap is growing. Currently, more than half of the world’s adult population lives below the poverty line, while in the United States, 745 billionaires control double the amount of wealth of the rest of the population combined. In the US, white and Asian people are far more likely to become millionaires than African American and Hispanic people, and the percentage of Americans that are millionaires and male is more than double the percentage of female millionaires.
That being said, the common perception of millionaires may be unfairly critical. The vast majority of millionaires are self-made, meaning they did not inherit their wealth. Most are college-educated and report that the key to their wealth was consistent investing and good money management.
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