World / USA Assets

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 30 September 2025 03:32
Published: Thursday, 08 August 2024 00:50
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World Assets

This article goes over all the assets in the world and the ownership of those assets.

ASSETS

sifma.org is a very good resource for global capital market. Link for assets per year: https://www.sifma.org/resources/research/fact-book/

You can also find a pdf on the right side that has lots of detail for each year.

Total assets in the world may be found out by adding up the price of all assets in the world. It's hard to find data for the world, but USA data is readily available. 

World Assets as of FY 2024:

  • World stock market => ~$130T ($65T in USA). Assume most of it is owned by individuals, or finally goes to the individuals (i.e Pension funds, etc). About $0.5T of new equity is issued in the market every year (Not sure, if this euquity issuance includes only the money that was collected from investors, or if it accounts for the total market cap of the new company issuing stocks, most likely it includes only the money that was raised from investors by issuing stocks).
  • World housing market => No matter which country house prices everywhere are soaring due to cheap money supply. In US, total residential Housing asset is ~$45T (as of 2023), so we may guess that global housing market may be close to stock market valuation. So, about $100T in housing asset (minus the amount of mortgage loan, but that will be paid off eventually. It might be around 20% or $20T in housing loans globally. US mortgage loans are at $13T)
  • Fixed income (FI) market => This comprises of bonds, debt issued by companies, govt, etc that people buy as debt securities. This market is $145T of which $60T is USA market. This market comprises all the debt securities outstanding as of that year, Roughly 20% of these fixed income securities are paid off or rotated again as new securities. About $25T of new fixed income securities are issued each year (as lot of them mature within 5 yrs, I guess) . As we can see "fixed income security" market is bigger than "equity market", though the gap is closing fast, as equity market goes up by 10%/yr, while bond market is going up by 5%/yr.
    • In 2009, global equity market was $50T, while FI market was $75T. As of 2024, global equity market was $130T, while FI market was $145T.
  • Cryptocurrency => These have added $2T or so to world assets as combined market cap is ~$2T as of 2024. Top 5 cryptocurrency comprise 80% of the market. They are all traded on stock exchanges just like stocks.
    • Bitcoin (BTC) = $1.2T or about 55% of market,
    • Ethereum (ETH) => $0.3T or about 15% of market,
    • Tether USDt (USDT) @$115B, BNB (BNB) @80B and Solana (SOL) @60B comprise next 12%
  • Precious metals => These include gold, silver, etc. Prices have been rising fast as of 2024-2025.
    • Gold:
    • Silver => 

 

USA household asset numbers are much more reliable, as they come from FED, collected via surveys and other genuine resources. 

Fed Link for Q4, 2024 for household assets => https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=52&eid=810420&od=2024-10-01#

You can look for any year by changing the year and Qtr in the above FED link.

USA household Assets as of FY 2024:

  • Total Assets =$180T (as reported by Fred data). However, on adding below numbers, it comes to $200T.
  • Financial assets = $72T 
    • Stock market (all equities, mutual funds (MF)) => $50T. Here equity market is $40T, and Mutual Funds is $12T. Ideally, all of the US stock market is eventually by all of US households. But when reporting equities held by households, we report only direct equities held by households. Equities via ETF, MF, other funds may be reported separately. Also, a good chunk of equities is owned by foreigners, corporate companies, pension funds, retirement funds, Life insurance companies, etc. For simplicity, Equity+MF component of assets for US households can be assumed to be 70%-80% US Wilshire Cap.
    • Bank Deposits/CDs: All money in banks/CU deposited by US households is $15T. CD and short term investments are $10T, while checkable deposits + currency are $5T. As of 2025, Total deposits in banks is $18T, while in CU, it's 
    • Bonds (Corporate bonds, US treasuries, Muni Bonds): ~$6T. Bulk of it, $4T, is US Treasuries.
    • Money market funds: ~$5T
  • Non Financial assets = $56T 
    • Housing market (all houses owned by households): $48T
    • Consumer durable goods (all houses owned by households): $8T. This includes personal items belong to Americans as cars, TV, , personal items, etc.
  • Other assets: $75T
    • Equity in non corporate business => This is to account for millions of Business that are run by Americans, which aren't listed listed on the stock market. Think of gas stations, restaurants, salons, etc that have substantial market value if sold by the owner. If you add this equity, it's ~$15T
    • Pension Entitlement: Millions of Americans are entitled for pensions, either via their government jobs, or by their private employers. This is a big chunk of money at ~$32T, and is included in household assets. Govt pensions are $15T, private is $13T and annuities are $5T.
    • Retirement Plan assets = $26T. These are individual retirement a/c consisting of IRA, 401K, etc.
      • 401K Plans => Total assets were $3T in 2009, but as of 2024, they swelled to $9T.
      • IRA a/c: => Total assets were $5T in 2009, but as of 2024, they swelled to $17T.
  • Total liabilities = $20T. Home mortgage is $14T, consumer credit=$5T, while misc loans are $1T. 
  • Net equity of US households = $200T-$20T=$180T

US wealth (excluding housing) was ~$70T in 2023. 

 

 

Wealth:

When it comes to wealth, developed economies have a lot of wealthy people. Though number of Billionaires reported as of 2022 is ~4K or so, I believe there are probably close to 10K billionaires in the world.

Billionaires by Country (US, China and India take top 3 positions)  => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_billionaires

To be in the top 1% of the population in any developed country, you need to have ~$1M in net assets. In USA, you need about $12M to be in the top 1% of households (see in USA section).

Top 1% wealth threshold per country => https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/america-s-richest-1-s-staggering-wealth-and-how-it-compares/ss-AA1fbf0q

Total wealth owned by individuals reached $600T as of 2023. It keeps rising at 5%-10% per year. Total number of millionaires in world is about 100M.

Link => https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/global-household-wealth-declined-in-2022-the-first-dip-since-the-2008-financial-crisis/ar-AA1fjuRf