A record millionaire count masks how unevenly the world's wealth still sits
Canada holds 13th place among 56 markets for average personal wealth per adult, at US$399,886, yet climbs to seventh when wealth is measured by the median.
That gap points to a flatter spread of wealth than several higher-ranked peers show.
On the median yardstick, which marks the midpoint of the population, Canada records US$147,811, placing it ahead of Switzerland and Norway.
Switzerland tops the average ranking at US$910,382 but falls to eighth on the median, the report found, while the United States sits second on average at US$696,277 and drops to 28th on the median.
The 2026 UBS Global Wealth Report noted that each market carries a different distribution, so a country can look wealthier or poorer depending on which slice of the adult population is in view.
Globally, personal wealth rose 10.8 percent in 2025 in US-dollar terms, CTV News reported, more than double the 4.6 percent recorded in 2024 and the 4.2 percent in 2023.
According to UBS estimates, nearly 1m people became US-dollar millionaires last year, the equivalent of about 2,600 a day.
The United States accounted for almost half of that growth, adding more than 440,000 individuals, or over 1,200 a day.
Wealth growth ran strongest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at 17.5 percent, helped by a weaker dollar, CTV News reported, followed by the Americas at 8.5 percent and Asia-Pacific at 5.9 percent.
North America led all regions at roughly US$660,000 per adult, BNN Bloomberg reported, ahead of Australia and New Zealand at US$590,000 and Western Europe at US$330,000.
"More people moving up the wealth ladder" was the real story of the year, the report said, framing it as continued expansion rather than concentration alone.
The gains reflected a world that kept building wealth and extending a long-running upward trend, it added.
For advisors weighing what those headline figures mean for clients, UBS flagged a caveat: reaching millionaire status does not equal holding US$1m in cash.
Owner-occupied property represents the single biggest asset for most people up to millionaire level, per the report, so rising home values alone have pushed many into the millionaire bracket without lifting disposable income.
Household debt also picked up in 2025 after shrinking the prior year, the report said, rising at its fastest pace since 2017.
The distribution across the full sample remained lopsided.
Some 42 percent of adults hold assets worth less than US$10,000, according to the report, while 41 percent hold US$10,000 to US$100,000, 15.3 percent hold US$100,000 to US$1m, and 1.5 percent hold more than US$1m.
The United States and mainland China together still account for over half of global personal wealth.
At the top, UBS counted 3,302 billionaires as of April across 47 markets, an increase of 383, or 13.1 percent, on its last report.
More than 1,000 live in the United States, with 562 in China and 211 in India.
"We count 18 individuals with wealth situated between US$50 and US$100bn and a further 19 with assets above US$100bn, 15 of which are based in the United States," UBS said.
