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The 10 Countries Where the Typical Adult Is Richest |
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UBS measures wealth two ways. The average adds up everything people own and divides by the number of adults. The median is the adult in the exact middle. In UBS’s 2026 report, America ranks second on the average and 28th on the median. Luxembourg’s middle adult owns $394,005. |
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Source: UBS Global Wealth Report 2026 (released June 30, 2026). Median wealth per adult, end-2025, US dollars; 56 markets. |
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$1.95 billion changed hands Monday
On Monday, Newmont wrote its biggest rival a check for $1.95 billion.
They'd fought over the same Nevada ground for years.
It ended in one morning.
Newmont bought permission. Barrick can now split its North American mines into a company worth north of $60 billion.
The two largest gold miners on earth just cleared their decks.
They didn't do it to sit still.
The window shuts September 30th.
| What's Surprising |
The United States has 23.6 million millionaires, more than 40% of the world’s total. Its average adult owns $696,277. Its median adult owns $68,998. That is a gap of ten to one, the widest of the 30 markets on UBS’s median table. The richest 1% of Americans hold 51% of the country’s stocks and mutual funds, according to the Federal Reserve. A few large fortunes lift the average. The middle stays where it is.
Japan is the mirror image. Its average adult owns $211,846, 24th of 56 markets. Its median adult owns $135,745, 10th. The middle Japanese adult has almost twice the wealth of the middle American.
Belgium ranks 11th on average wealth and 2nd on the median. Its middle adult owns $277,166. That is nearly twice the Swiss median of $145,555, in the country UBS ranks first for average wealth.
| What's Not Surprising |
Small, rich, expensive countries fill the top. Five of the ten are in Western Europe. Australia, New Zealand and Canada take three more. Hong Kong and Japan are the only Asian entries. High incomes, decades of saving and costly property add up.
The bottom of the table explains the top. Germany is 30th on UBS’s median list at $53,485, below Greece at $59,162. Austria is 27th. They have the two lowest home-ownership rates in the European Union: 47% and 55%, against an EU average of 68%, according to Eurostat. Switzerland, where most people rent, has the world’s highest average wealth and only the eighth-highest median. For a middle-class family, the house is the savings account.
UBS says median wealth fell in most markets in 2025, even as total personal wealth rose 10.8% in dollar terms. It also changed its methods this year, so these figures don’t line up with earlier editions.
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$394,005 The wealth of Luxembourg’s median adult, the highest of the 56 markets UBS tracks. Luxembourg’s average is only 1.7 times its median. |
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10 to 1 America’s average adult wealth ($696,277) against its median ($68,998). No market on UBS’s top-30 median table has a wider gap. |
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28th Where the typical American ranks among 56 markets on median wealth. On average wealth, America ranks second, behind only Switzerland. |
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47% Share of Germans who own their home, the lowest in the EU. Germany’s median adult owns $53,485, last on UBS’s top-30 median list. |
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51% Share of all US stocks and mutual funds held by the richest 1% of Americans in mid-2026. When markets rise, the average climbs. The median barely moves. |
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UBS publishes its next Global Wealth Report around mid-2027. Two things to track. First, US stocks. It took a record $4.4 billion to join the 2026 Forbes 400, and a rising market lifts America’s average far more than its median. Second, the gap itself. UBS found median wealth falling in most markets while averages rose. If that repeats in 2026, the story of this list is the gap, not the leaders. We’ll be watching. |
