Despite declining wealth, the Swiss remain the richest people

Switzerland remains one of the wealthiest countries in the world. © Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

The world population lost more wealth last year than at any time since the financial crisis. Account balances also fell in Switzerland in 2022. The falling stock market prices were primarily to blame. Nevertheless, the Swiss remain the richest people in the world.

Overall, the gross financial assets of people in Switzerland fell by 2.1%, as Allianz writes in its “Global Wealth Report” published on Tuesday. This was due to the largest asset class, securities, which lost a good 12% in value. It didn’t help that the other two major asset classes – bank deposits and insurance or pensions – increased by around 2 and 3% respectively.

With a gross wealth of more than €356,000 per capita – which corresponds to almost CHF345,000 – Switzerland is still by far the top of the richest countries. The next places are the USA (€308,000) and Denmark (€221,000).

Meanwhile, according to the announcement, Swiss debt increased by 2.9%. This means that the development of liabilities slowed down somewhat (2021: +3.2%).

The bottom line is that net assets per capita in Switzerland – i.e. gross assets minus liabilities – fell by 4.4% to just under €239,000 (CHF231,000). This decline is the largest since the year of the financial crisis in 2008, according to the report. In terms of net assets per capita, Switzerland was, as in the previous year, in second place behind the USA (€253,000).