Quora Answer: Why Does Sweden Have a Higher Percentage of Millionaires Than Singapore?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why does Sweden have a higher percentage of millionaires than Singapore?” 

The population of Singapore is around 5.5 million.  Of these, the wealth management industry broadly estimates that there are between 270,000 to 300,000 millionaires.  That means around 5.5% of the people in Singapore are at least millionaires.  That wealth is expected to grow by 62% by 2025.  The population of Sweden is 10.3 million.  Sweden has 570,000 millionaires, which means around 7.3% of the population are at least millionaires.  That number is expected to grow by around 13% to 15%.  These numbers do not tell the whole story.  Sweden’s CPI compared to Singapore means that it is a lot more expensive to live there.  That means a millionaire in Singapore would have his money go further.  This is tied to the nature of government. 

Sweden has been a nation state with contiguous territory for over a thousand years.  It has been a major European power for several hundred of those years.  Modern Sweden was established in 1523, with the crowning of Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson; and the dissolution of union with Denmark.  In contrast, Singapore gained independence in 1965.  It took six decades for Singapore to catch up in wealth, despite the smaller population, and lack of resources.  This can be seen in the nature of the wealth.  Much of Sweden’s high net worth have their wealth tied to real estate and land.  In contrast, a larger proportion of Singapore’s wealthy, while they do own land, actually gained their wealth through entrepreneurship.  The market fundamentals are different. 

That being said, while the number of wealthy is expected to grow as a percentage of the population, it pales in comparison to Asia in general.  Western Europe is a place of developed economies, meaning the GDP growth has slowed.  Asia is a place of growing economies, meaning that GDP growth is higher.  That means the percentage of wealthy will continue to outstrip that of Europe in the near future.