Friday, May 20, 2005

The Superwealthy

Interesting stat:

The number of superwealthy in the U.S. has surged, with 430,000 households now worth more than $10 million. That's up from 65,000, adjusted for inflation, in 1989.


By my calculation that's roughly a 660% increase in 16 years. To put that in perspective the overall U.S. population has grown from around 249 million in 1990 to 296 million today -- an increase of about 19%.
:
Also noteworthy:
A study of the Forbes 400 list of super-rich Americans by Arthur Kennickell, senior economist with the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., found that about half the people on the 2001 list weren't on the list in 1989. For the nation's richest 1%, inherited wealth accounted for only 9% of their net worth in 2001, down from 23% in 1989, according to a study by New York University economist Edward Wolff.

No comments: