🌅 Where Global Wealth Inequality Stands Today

SOURCE

World Inequality Report 2026

WHAT TO KNOW

• A new report based on data compiled by over 200 researchers around the world found 0.001% of the global population—just 56,000 people—now holds three times more wealth than the entire bottom half of humanity combined (over 4 billion people). The World Inequality Report 2026 also found the share of global wealth held by the richest 0.001% has grown from under 4% in 1995 to more than 6% today, while the entire bottom half of humanity holds just 2%. Wealth is further concentrated among the 50 richest individuals on the planet, who’ve seen their fortunes grow by roughly 8% each year since the 1990s, nearly twice the rate of growth experienced by the bottom half of the global population.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The current magnitude of wealth inequality around the world is difficult to comprehend. For example, the 56,000 individuals in the top 0.001% of wealth holders would fit comfortably inside every NFL stadium in the U.S., while the 4 billion people in the bottom half would fill up every stadium of any size on the planet thousands of times over. To illustrate even further, counting each of the 56,000 people in the top 0.001% one per second would take a little over 15.5 hours, while counting 4 billion people one per second would take more than 126 years.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• A new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies found the richest 15 U.S. billionaires gained nearly $1 trillion in wealth during the first year of Donald Trump’s second term, with a significant portion of the gain going to just one person, Elon Musk, who added $305 billion to his wealth last year, a solid 1,059x return on the $288 million he spent helping Trump and other Republican candidates get elected in 2024. For context, if you had $1 billion in your bank account and spent $1,000 each day, it would take you 2,740 years to run out of money.