India Ranks Among Most Unequal Countries in UBS Global Wealth Report 2025
MUMBAI — Swiss bank UBS has released its Global Wealth Report 2025, revealing that global personal wealth grew by 10.8% over the last year while wealth inequality has intensified since 2020. The findings, which analyze 56 markets representing over 92% of global wealth, show that India remains among the world's most unequal countries, sharing a Gini coefficient score of 0.74 with Sweden.
The report, which highlights a widening gap between the wealthiest individuals and the broader population, noted that median wealth declined in most markets despite the rise in average wealth. This trend persisted even as strong financial markets drove the fastest growth in personal wealth in recent years, creating nearly one million new millionaires in US dollar terms.
According to the UBS report, the 10.8% increase in personal wealth in 2025 marks a significant acceleration compared to growth rates of 4.6% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2023. The United States accounted for nearly half of the new USD millionaires, adding more than 440,000 individuals to this bracket.
In contrast, wealth growth in the Asia-Pacific region lagged behind other global regions, standing at just over 5.9% last year. UBS attributed this slower growth to currency effects and market dynamics, though it maintained that the long-term outlook for the region remains positive. Most high-net-worth individuals in the region are concentrated in Greater China and Southeast Asia.
The United States expanded its share of global personal wealth to 35.7% in the UBS sample. Western Europe accounted for just under 22%, followed by Greater China at 18.5%, which saw a slight decrease from its 2024 share. Together, the United States and Greater China continue to hold more than half of the world's personal wealth.
The report also measured national wealth distribution using the Gini coefficient, where a higher score reflects greater inequality. The United Arab Emirates and Russia recorded the highest inequality scores at 0.82. They were followed by South Africa and Brazil at 0.81, Saudi Arabia at 0.78, and the United States at 0.77, before Sweden and India at 0.74.
