May 02, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The number of people in Korea with financial assets worth more than 1 billion won (US$892,295) rose 14.8 percent on year to 242,000 last year, a report showed Aug. 1.

According to the annual survey by KB Financial Group's research institute, people classified as wealthy held a total of 552 trillion won worth of financial assets in 2016, accounting for 16.3 percent of total financial assets owned by all households. Compared with a year ago, the ratio was up 1 percentage point, highlighting a growing gap between haves and have-nots. 

Since 2012, when the research institute began conducting the survey, the number of people with financial assets worth more than 1 billion won has risen at an annual average growth rate of 10 percent, it said.

Property accounted for 52.2 percent of assets owned by the wealthy people last year, followed by financial assets with 44.2 percent, according to the survey. Wealthy people had property valued at an average 2.8 billion won last year, about 11 times higher than assets held by all households.

The survey found that 14.8 percent of the wealthy people had property assets worth more than 5 billion won.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)