Last year, 79% of the wealth created in China went to the richest 1% of the population, while 73% of the wealth created in India went to the top 1%, according to Oxfam's analysis. As a result, the top 1% of China's population owned 47% of its national wealth in 2017, while in India they owned 45% of the country's wealth. In Thailand - a highly unequal country in South East Asia - 96% of the wealth created last year went to the top 1% of the population.
In another sign of rising inequality, Asia-Pacific's income Gini coefficient - a gauge of economic inequality - increased from 0.37 to 0.48 between 1990 and 2014. A coefficient of 0 denotes perfect equality and at 1 represents total inequality Wealth inequality in Asia is even wider. The Gini coefficient was at a lofty 0.82 for China, 0.88 for India and 0.90 for the rest of the Asia-Pacific region in 2015,
The Asia-Pacific region as a whole, then it has overtaken the US with 600 billionaires, according to Oxfam's analysis of data from Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2017.
Also, the Asia-Pacific region has the greatest number of high net worth individuals in the world, or people who have more than $1m on top of the value of their main residence. The region accounts for 34.1% of high net worth individuals globally versus 31.3% for North America, according a Capgemini report from 2018. Asia-Pacific also accounts for 30.8% of their total wealth versus 28.2% for North America.
Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, is Asia's wealthiest person and number 17 in the world, according to the 2018 Forbes list. He is the chief executive of China's tech giant Tencent Holdings, which owns WeChat, an enormously popular messaging app in China. He has a net worth of $45.3bn. Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Alibaba is one of the world's most valuable companies, and its shares nearly doubled in value last year. His net worth was $39bn. Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing and China's Wang Jianlin, whose net worth was $34.9bn and $30bn respectively on the Forbes list.
So it may be home to the greatest number of millionaires and billionaires in the world, but also hosts nearly two-thirds of the world's working poor.
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