An increasing number of Belgian millionaires
In 2016 there were 114,200 of them, Belgians with investable assets (shares, bonds, funds, cash …) worth at least 1 million American dollars, or approximately 850,000 euros. Not including the main residence. This is an increase of 5% compared to 2015, and a little lower than the 6.5% growth in the number of dollar millionaires in our country in that year compared to 2014. Even so, the number of Belgian millionaire continues to grow, taking us to 26th position in the world ranking.
Percentage growth is greatest in Russia (plus 20%), the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Worldwide, the number of dollar millionaires grew by 7.5% to 16.5 million people. Most live in the USA (4.8 million), Japan (2.9 million), Germany (1.3 million) and China (1.1 million). Meanwhile the richest of all, those owning over 30 million dollars, are doing even better than ‘normal’ millionaires. Their numbers have grown by 8.3% and their joint assets by 9.2%. In comparison: in 2016, the Belgian GNP (gross national product, the value of all goods and services produced) grew by 1.2%.
And they just keep getting younger …
Not only are there new millionaires coming on board in Belgium every year, it also appears that they keep on getting younger. This is explained by the fact that more and more people with money are deciding to pass some on to their children or grandchildren, using endowments.