China’s middle class overtakes US as largest in world

The country which is home to the world's most enduring peasant-led communist revolution is now home to the biggest middle-class population, according to a new report, after China overtook the US as the leader in the bourgeoisie stakes.

China, with nearly 1.4 billion people, makes up a fifth of the world's population, but accounts for about 10 per cent of global wealth. The data from Swiss bank Credit Suisse comes as economic growth in China is slowing down to about 7 per cent a year.

There are 109 million Chinese with wealth of between $50,000 (€43,672)- $500,000 (€436,715) and since the beginning of the century, twice as many Chinese as Americans have joined the middle class.

Ireland features in the report as one of the top performers in the property market. In terms of real annual growth rates, Ireland has moved from being one of the 10 worst performers in the period 2005-2010 to being one of the top performers in the last five years, with 4.9 per cent growth.

Ireland also has one of the highest share of middle class in the world, with 50.3 per cent considered middle class, lower than Britain with 57.4 per cent but ahead of France (49.2 per cent), Switzerland (44.5 per cent) and Finland with 45.6 per cent.

The pace at which Chinese people are accumulating wealth is remarkable: wealth per adult has quadrupled to about $22,500 (€19,650) since 2000.

Credit Suisse’s report shows 664 million adults belonged to the global middle class in 2015, equivalent to 14 per cent of the total adult population.

Earlier this year, a report by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers found that a new billionaire was created almost every week in China in the first quarter of the year.