Ireland trails only Japan as the country with the highest average wealth per head, with 30,000 millionaires, according to a report on Monday from the private banking arm of one of Ireland's biggest commercial banks.
In a survey of eight leading OECD nations, Bank of Ireland Private Banking (BoIPB) shows Ireland is ranked the second wealthiest behind Japan, and ahead of Britain, the US, Italy, France, Germany and Canada.
It shows an average wealth per head of nearly €150,000 (US$191,670) for every Irishman, woman and child, fuelled by growth over the past decade.
Upbeat
Covering household savings and investment patterns in an international context, the report is upbeat about the sustainability of recently created wealth and suggests that concern about the rising levels of debt are overstated.
"A key defining characteristic of our wealth is that it is first generational by nature, with the vast bulk of our wealth having been created in the past ten years," according to Mark Cunningham, managing director, BoIPB.
"The report highlights that much of this wealth has been created through gains in property investment and through a willingness to borrow to invest further.
"It has been entrepreneurial and more risk orientated than many other developed countries where inheritance features more prominently.
"The current allocation of Irish wealth to equities and cash, by contrast, is less than any of the other countries in the report," Cunningham said.
Property boom
Largely as a result of an ongoing property boom the report says Irish wealth has grown by 350% in the last ten years to €681bn.
It forecasts the value of Irish assets will continues to soar to 1.2 trillion by 2015.
Personal savings amounted to €10bn at the end of last year and the report forecasts it will increase to €24bn by 2015.
The report predicts that as property price increases ease, an ageing population may act as catalysts for diversification into other assets, primarily investment and pension funds.
"As wealth grows and matures, the benefits of diversification become compelling and an increasing amount of this wealth will be allocated to other assets.
"This is a natural evolution as Ireland's wealth matures and individuals seek to protect their gains and transfer wealth to the next generation," Cunningham said.
Last year, Irish asset allocation stood as property 71%, equities 16%, cash 10%, and bonds 3%.
30,000 millionaires
The report says there are now in the region of 30,000 Irish millionaires - based on their assets and excluding the value of their principal private residence.
If the definition included their value of homes, the report suggests there would be as many as 100,000 millionaires.
Of the 30,000 millionaires, BoIPB estimates there are 300 people with a net worth in excess of €30m, 2,700 worth between €5m and €50m and the remaining are worth between €1m and €5m.
The OECD, or Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has a membership of 30 countries, including the United States, the biggest European nations, as well as Asian countries Japan and South Korea, plus Australia and New Zealand.
© Copyright; Foundation for Economic Growth and various authors. Individual authors retain their own copyright.
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