Iran Press/ Europe: The median wealth of people in Belgium currently stands at 228,594 euro. This means that according to the calculations used by those compiling the report, half of all people in Belgium have wealth of 228,594 euro or more, while half have less than this.
About 228,594 euros. That is the median wealth of the Belgian. This makes residents of Belgium, according to the annual Global Wealth report of the bank Credit Suisse, the richest in the world. But what exactly is “median wealth” and how does this differ from average wealth.
The economist Geert Noels explained that "Median wealth is the point at which half of all adults have more and half less”. The median is the middle value of a group of numbers ordered from smallest to largest. "You should not equate this with average wealth, where for example, a bunch of rich people and a large group of poor people can distort the figure." Geert Noels says that median wealth provides the most accurate picture of prosperity among a country’s population.
While Belgium is top dog when it comes to median wealth, the country is only 11th when it comes to average wealth, where Switzerland and the United States rule the roost.
Geert Noels told VRT News "The extent of the difference in Belgium’s ranking between median wealth and average wealth is something that catches the eye. This can only lead us to conclude that the distribution of wealth in the country is not really all that concentrated”.
Reservations about the calculations
Geert Noels told VRT News that when calculating median wealth UBS took three factors into consideration. There were savings (including money invested in shares and bonds), real estate and debts.
However, public debt that is high in Belgium was not taken into consideration. Furthermore, "Countries like Norway where a lot of things are state-owned are not really properly reflected in the list. Norwegians have about 1 million each via the state. A huge amount that increases each year. Per capita wealth there is by far the highest of any country in the world".
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