Talk:List of countries by wealth per adult

National wealth list

This is a first stab at a list of countries by national wealth.

The sorting is based on combined household and government net financial assets per adult. This statistic is more accurate than figures that do not account for debt and do not account for government wealth. As tax rates and the relative size of government differ greatly between countries, not accounting for net government wealth would overestimate net wealth per adult in countries with low tax rates and underestimate it countries with high rates.

It was my understanding that the figures were based on household assets only. Are you sure you are correct? If so, could you cite a source so I can add a note to the page? — George Makepeace (talk) 18:13, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

For more data to expand the article, see the Credit Suisse source and the link to the World Bank study at the bottom of the page. Koyos (talk) 15:42, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

The methodology of the Credit Suisse source is dubious. Read their fudge factors. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.100.122.51 (talk) 12:41, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

the national wealth per adult of Nigeria is higher than in Germany or in USA? That can NEVER be true! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.208.0.201 (talk) 09:07, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Map

I removed the map because it was badly designed: It only showed Europe, it was hard to read, and it was added as the first section, obscuring the data below it. A map would be an excellent idea, and I welcome the contribution, but it should be done like the map on List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita. George Makepeace (talk) 11:27, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Rank?

The country's rank in the list is assigned according to total wealth, not to wealth per adult. That makes no sense to me. Shouldn't Switzerland have rank 1? etc. --Maelcum (talk) 20:00, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Median and map

Median and map are the most important.We can delete line with median in table below.Moonsunstar1 (talk) 08:01, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

First of all that’s an opinion not fact. Second, median is already listed. Third, median wealth doesn’t mean much to begin with because it’s a function of non-financial assets, which is mainly ones own home. Therefore countries will rate high just because they have high home prices and vice versa. This is why Germany ranks below much poorer Spain and Italy as an example. Sweden is also below Italy. Very little correlation with income or financial assets. Financial assets, ie, liquid assets, form a very small part of the middle segment. They reflect more in the mean and upper part of the distribution.

A simple illustration showing importance of income for financing consumption. We assume 3% rate for fin wealth which is spent in a given year, and (for NF wealth) we assume 3% of homes sold of which, half are downsized, half of that cash retained, and 20% of that spent in a given year.

Country A (all per adult)

Income: 50,000 NF wealth: 10,000 Fin wealthy: 50,000

50,000 + nil + 1500= 51,500-savings= consumption

Country B:

Income: 30,000 NF wealth: 250,000 Fin wealth: 100,000

30,000+375+3000= 33,375-savings= consumption.

So even a massive difference in wealth in favor of B will only marginally close the distance in terms of consumption. If the difference was purely due to NF assets, as in the middle quintile (where NF assets dominate=home equity), then the boost to consumption for B would be almost trivial. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lneal001 (talk • contribs) 16:38, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Median describes not only the net wealth per capita but its distribution too and so the probanbility to have a real wealth person.Mastercard13273 (talk) 08:22, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

We can agree setting a list with mean wealth and below the one with median one.Also mean wealth must be ordered like median one.We can delete mean and median below. Map is useful.Mastercard13273 (talk) 16:06, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Remove redundant tables

The third table in the article contained all the information from the first two and more, so I removed the first two. The result is a more compact article with all the important information you need right at the top. My edit does not remove any information from the article - it merely deduplicates the content. I've been editing this article for years, so please do not undo my edit without explanation again: If, for some reason, you think we need an extra 2 copies of the same information, explain why you think so here. — George Makepeace (talk) 16:45, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

I am leaning toward having separate tables for mean and median wealth. So the redundant table would be the combined one. --Timeshifter (talk) 18:20, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Why? Wikipedia allows sorting by column, so a combined table is functionally equivalent to multiple tables, except with the added bonus of deduplication and, most importantly, easy comparison. With 3 separate tables, it is extremely difficult for a reader to compare total, mean and median wealths of countries. What is the disadvantage of having a combined table? — George Makepeace (talk) 21:54, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

The 1st and 2nd tables are clear.They've clear ranks.Stop to act as a vandal.Bostongarden1942 (talk) 13:35, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

The 3rd table is also clear. The 3rd table also has clear ranks, and the ranks can be changed at the click of a button. In what way do you think the 1st and 2nd tables are more clear than the 3rd? — George Makepeace (talk) 18:42, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

I suggest one smaller table consisting solely of 2 data columns: A median wealth per adult column first, and a mean wealth per adult column to its right. There should also be a fixed row number column in this style:

• List of countries by total health expenditure per capita

The total wealth by country data is not the focus of this list. It should be a separate bonus table farther down the page in my opinion. It only confuses many readers if it is in the same table. --Timeshifter (talk) 18:53, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

That's a fair point. I certainly agree that we should not have separate tables for mean and median, and I agree that median should be emphasized because a lot of people would misunderstand the mean to mean "wealth of the average person". I like your idea for the rankings, the only issue is it would be nice to include "World", "Europe", etc in the table for comparison purposes, but it would be better if the continents had no ranking. Unless anyone has any objections, I'm going to merge the median and mean tables as you described because I'm sure we can all agree that that's certainly a step in the right direction. Thanks — George Makepeace (talk) 19:15, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Looks good. I agree about the continents. They are more important than being able to rank by mean wealth (which is not very useful).

I suggest deleting the mean and median columns from the total wealth table farther down. Eliminates duplication. And makes clear what is being ranked. --Timeshifter (talk) 21:07, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Personally, I think we should keep a fully complete table here, or on a new page List of countries by wealth so that people can compare total wealth with mean and median. A percent of global wealth column should also be added. At the moment, I'm more concerned about the accuracy of the data itself (see section below). — George Makepeace (talk) 00:16, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

I think that such a combination table should be on a separate page that focuses on total wealth in countries. Something like List of countries by total wealth and percent of world wealth --Timeshifter (talk) 17:52, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Article now it's really ok.Bostongarden1942 (talk) 11:19, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Errors in data

I checked a few countries' data arbitrarily and found the following:

• The colored map indicates that French Guiana has median wealth > 102k, yet Credit Suisse has its mean wealth at 48k. It's not feasible for median wealth to be higher than mean wealth.
• Angola's mean wealth is 13,165, yet it's listed here as 3,850. It looks like the correct value was removed on 26 May 2018.
• Egypt's mean wealth is 3,168, yet it's listed here as 13,165.

I've only checked a few, so I expect there are numerous more errors.

Unless anyone has any better ideas, I'm planning on retrieving an entirely fresh set of data directly from Credit Suisse tomorrow.

— George Makepeace (talk) 00:06, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

This may help: Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files. It needs to be updated. And more tools and methods need to be added. --Timeshifter (talk) 00:40, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Good job.Now it's ok.Dispute ended.Bostongarden1942 (talk) 11:18, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

No, it's not okay. Removing the dispute was not acceptable. You did nothing to correct the factual inaccuracies or to explain why you think there are no factual inaccuracies. Please explain why you think the data is correct and do not remove the dispute notice again until we all agree on it. — George Makepeace (talk) 18:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)