'More millionaires than ever' but India among nations with highest inequality. What key report reveals

INcome inequality has grown world-wide, with median value wealthiness falling in to the highest degree markets that Swiss bank UBS analysed, its annual Global Wealth Report 2025, published on Tuesday, said.According to the report, personal wealth in 2025 grew at its fastest pace in years, creating nearly one million new millionaires in US dollar terms. The Swiss bank analysed 56 markets, which it estimates represent over 92 per cent of the world's wealth.The total personal wealth rose by 10.8 per cent last year, up from 4.6 per cent in 2024 and 4.2 per cent in 2023. UBS credited the growth to the strong financial markets.The report pointed out that there were "more millionaires than ever, everywhere" in 2025. The United States, where over 440,000 people became new millionaires in US dollar terms, accounted for almost half of this growth.In Europe, the UBS report found that wealth in US dollar terms grew disproportionately quickly, largely due to last year's depreciation of the dollar against the euro.But the report also rang alarm bells, saying that while average wealth rose, inequality has deepened since 2020. Median wealth, which better reflects the middle of the scale, declined in most countries, highlighting a growing divide between the wealthiest and the broader population, the bank added.Growth slow in the Asia PacificWealth growth in Asia-Pacific lagged behind other regions last year, at just over 5.9 per cent. The UBS report blamed currency effects and market dynamics for the slow growth, but said that the overall long-term trend in the region remains positive.The region has most of its high-net-worth individuals concentrated in Greater China and Southeast Asia.The United States has further expanded its share of global wealth since 2024. It is now home to 35.7 per cent of the personal wealth found in the UBS sample. WesternEurope followed with just under 22 per cent. Greater China, helped by its large population, is next with 18.5 per cent, though its share is slightly less than in 2024.Thus, just two markets – the United States and Greater China – jointly continue to be home to over half of the world’s personal wealth.But as far as measuring inequality by the Gini coefficient is concerned, the UAE is the most unequal country in the world according to the report, with a Gini score of 0.82. It is followed by Russia with a 0.82 score, South Africa and Brazil with 0.81, Saudi Arabia with 0.78, and the United States with 0.77. Sweden and India follow the top 6 with a Gini score of 0.74.The Gini coefficient, a number between 0 and 1, measures the distribution of wealth within a population. The lower the score, the more equally wealth is distributed, and vice versa.