The richest households have widened their lead over the past year, according to new research from Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research.
The data show that the top 1% by wealth recorded a 4.6% increase year-over-year, the largest gain of any group. The bottom 50% also saw relatively strong growth at 4.2%, but the middle tiers of wealth rose at a slower pace of about 3.1% to 3.6%.
The richest 1% has seen the biggest wealth jump YoY -GS pic.twitter.com/ifK2jZBEpa
— Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT 🍖 (@MikeZaccardi) August 20, 2025
Top 1% wealth surges $33.9 trillion in a decade, enough to end poverty 22 times over
The findings arrive two months after Oxfam released its own warning about wealth concentration.
In a June report, the group found that the world’s richest 1% have increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion since 2015, more than enough to end poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $8.30 a day.
The wealth of just 3,000 billionaires has surged $6.5 trillion in that period and now equals 14.6% of global GDP.
The organization noted that the richest 1% now hold 43% of global assets, a concentration it described as “choking efforts to end poverty.” It warned that wealthy governments are making the largest aid cuts on record, even as debt crises force low-income countries to spend more on repayments than on healthcare or education.
Nearly 3.7 billion people remain in poverty, almost a decade after world leaders pledged to eliminate it by 2030.
“Rich countries have put Wall Street in the driver’s seat of global development. It’s a global private finance takeover which has overrun the evidence-backed ways to tackle poverty through public investments and fair taxation. It is no wonder governments are abysmally off track, be it on fostering decent jobs, gender equality, or ending hunger. This much wealth concentration is choking efforts to end poverty”, said Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International.
With global development talks set to continue through the year, the data sharpen calls for governments to consider wealth taxes, reverse aid cuts, and reform financial systems to tackle extreme inequality.
Featured image via Shutterstock.
