This is where the world's richest one per cent come from

United States retains dominance as the most likely origin of the world's richest one per cent

A new study by the University of Oxford collected data to find out what countries the world’s richest people came from between 1988 and 2012.

The study found that although more than ever the one per cent come from emerging countries, the US still retains dominance, with nearly 38 per cent of individuals in the global top 1 per cent in 2012 coming from the country.



It also noted that 79 per cent of the global one per cent are citizens of advanced economies. However, the share is only diminishing, as this is 7-11 percentage points lower than between 1988-2005.

In 2012, Japan ranked second with a share of 8.5 per cent, followed by Germany (5.8 per cent), France (5.4 per cent) and Brazil (5.3 per cent). The UK ranked sixth with 4.7 per cent of all global 'one per centers'.

PHOTO: INDEPENDENT

According to Sudhir Anand, from the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford, “The turning point for the emerging economies appears to have been around 2005. That is when its citizens increasingly started to enter the ranks of the global rich.”



“This trend was undoubtedly reinforced by the global financial crisis in 2008, which slowed growth in the advanced economies. But developing countries were already beginning to catch up before then,” he added. “As long as emerging economies continue to grow faster, which seems likely for the near future, the trend will continue with developing countries comprising an increasing share of the global top one per cent,” he concluded.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates from the US remains the world’s richest person, at $77.7 billion, while Spain’s Amancio Ortega, who founded the Zara clothing chain’s owner Inditex SA, is second at $72.7 billion. Facebook Inc co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, also from the US is the fifth richest man in the world at $54 billion.

This article originally appeared on Indy100.