Swiss remain world’s second-richest people

Swiss remain the second richest nation Keystone-SDA

The global population became wealthier in 2024, a new report says. Switzerland remains in second place internationally in terms of net wealth.

By the end of 2024, total financial assets had grown by 8.7% to reach €269 trillion (CHF251 trillion). This growth was even higher than in the already strong previous year (+8.0%).

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The gross financial assets of Swiss households rose by 4.2% in 2024, the insurer Allianz Switzerland writes in its Global Wealth Report, published on Thursday. The previous year’s growth (+2.6%) was thus clearly exceeded. The main driver of this was securities, whereas the two other asset classes of insurance/pensions and bank deposits grew moderately.

According to Allianz, debt increased by just 2.1% in comparison. This resulted in robust growth in net financial assets of 5.3%. Switzerland recorded a per-capita value of just under €269,000, putting it in second place behind the United States (€311,000) and well ahead of other Western European countries.

In contrast to the US, where two-thirds of asset growth came from increases in the value of equity securities, 84% of Swiss asset growth resulted from additional savings.

The Swiss favour insurance products

According to Allianz, the savings habits of Swiss households differ significantly from their Austrian and German neighbours in two respects. On the one hand, they remained reluctant to make bank deposits, as only 15% of their savings went to the banks. On the other hand, insurance products accounted for a high proportion of savings (41%).

As in the rest of the German-speaking world, investment funds such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) accounted for the majority of securities purchases in Switzerland.

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Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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