The Blubber

1.8 million Americans lost their millionaire status in 2022, according to UBS' 2023 Global Wealth Survey.

In the previous year, over 3.5 million individuals saw their "dollar millionaire" status erode, marking the first global wealth decline since the 2008 financial crisis.

The UBS annual wealth report, released on Tuesday, disclosed that the count of adults possessing assets exceeding $1 million (£790,000) dropped from 62.9 million at the close of 2021 to 59.4 million by the end of 2022. UBS attributed the global wealth decrease to elevated inflation and the depreciation of numerous currencies relative to the US dollar.

The United States experienced a reduction of 1.8 million millionaires, leaving a total of 22.7 million, still significantly more than any other country. China ranked second with 6.2 million millionaires.

Despite this downturn, the report revealed that the number of dollar millionaires was four times the figure at the start of the century.

Within the United Kingdom, the count of millionaires fell by 440,000 to 2.6 million, marking the third most substantial decline, following Japan's decline from 3.2 million to 2.6 million. Australia was next with the fourth largest decrease, with 360,000 individuals no longer qualifying as millionaires, reducing the total to 1.8 million.

At the uppermost echelons, the number of individuals possessing assets exceeding $50 million each decreased by 22,500 to 243,000.

In separate research conducted for the Bloomberg billionaires index, the wealthiest 500 people globally collectively lost a staggering $1.4 trillion in 2022.

Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest individual and co-founder of Tesla, witnessed a $138 billion decrease in 2022, the year in which he concluded the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, who had once been one of the top 10 richest individuals globally, experienced a decline of almost $81 billion in net worth, concluding 2022 with $45 billion.

UBS economists reported that in 2022, the super-rich, the moderately affluent, and individuals with lower wealth all experienced a collective decrease in wealth. This marked the "first fall in net global household wealth since the global financial crisis of 2008."