Asking which country is the richest is like asking what the best recipe for dinner is: it sounds like a sensible question, right up until you try to answer it – at which point you realize some pretty important context has been left out.
Sure, we usually think we know what it means: which nation, when you sum up its total assets and subtract its liabilities, has the biggest number left over at the end? And that definitely is one way to measure the wealth of a country – but it’s not the only method.
So, what’s the richest country in the world? Well, it depends on what you mean.
Richest country by total household wealth
Let’s look at that measure to start with: the total net value of a country’s assets minus the total value of its liabilities. By that standard, you’ll probably not be surprised to learn that the USA takes the prize, with a total wealth of almost $140 trillion, according to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023.
That’s not just “most comfortably off”, by the way – that’s “fuck you” money. It’s more than 150 percent of the figure for the second wealthiest nation, China – a comparative pauper with only $84 trillion to its name. It’s more than the entire continent of Europe, even; it’s only beaten by the entirety of Asia considered as a whole.
Richest country by average wealth per capita
Just because a country tops the international financial charts, though, doesn’t mean it’s a paradise for those who live there. Looking at the average wealth per capita – that is, the mean amount of wealth held by each individual in the country – shows a very different story, with the top spot taken by none other than Switzerland.
Citizens of this small, famously neutral, and occasionally explosive country hold an average of just over $685,000 per person – quite a bit more than the $551,000 held by the “average” USian. And, depending on which sources you look at, there’s another country that beats the good old US of A in terms of mean wealth per capita: data experts at Statista have the teeny nation of Luxembourg as boasting an average of almost $586,000.
Richest country by median wealth per capita
Closely related to the average wealth is the median wealth per capita – that is, the amount of wealth held by whoever is exactly in the middle. This theoretical citizen is defined as having exactly as many people in the country richer than them as there are poorer than them – and so, unlike the mean wealth, the figure is less prone to being skewed by a few ultra-rich people at the top.
By this metric, the USA doesn’t even crack the top 10, with the Global Wealth Report placing it at a cool 13th place. Top of the list is Belgium, of all places, whose median citizen has a wealth of just under $250,000; next on the list is Australia, down from first place last year; then Hong Kong takes third.
Country with the most billionaires
Depending on who you ask, either the US is home to the most billionaires, with 813 individuals making the list – or else it’s China, with 814. Regardless of whether China takes the top spot or languishes at around 400, though, one thing seems to be agreed on: the number in the US is going up, while China is currently losing billionaires year-on-year.
Country with the lowest poverty rate
Having the most billionaires in your country may be quite the boast, but most of us are much more likely to end up in poverty than power. But in which nation is that least likely?
This one, we’re going to bet you won’t guess: it’s Slovenia. “By adopting practices such as the free provision of kindergarten education, Slovenia has become one of the countries with the lowest poverty rates in the world,” explains finance website Insider Monkey. “This is why it ranks first on our list.”
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