The Rich are Getting Richer - but more equal with each other

The BRW Rich list is out for another year. Apart from the headline that Gina Rinehart is supposed to have gone from wealth of $20 to $14 billion what can we learn?

Well apart from that move at the top we can also reveal that the bottom entry has gone from $250 million to $286 million. However, the BRW is quite confusing in its list construction. Some wealth amounts are listed for families but occupy one place, whereas others might be listed in two names but the list for some reason gives them two places. As a consequence there are actually only 185 "wealth pools" listed, not 200. The average pool has gone from $1000 million to $1053 million. That's a growth of a bit over 5% and hence better than inflation.

Unsurprisingly if the bottom has increased and the top massively decreased the wealth distribution is ever so slightly more even as shown in the chart of proportion of population measured against cumulative proportion of wealth.

However the change is very slight. Statistical analysis of the list over the last ten or more years could be a fun exercise. I'll just add it to the long list of fun exercises I have to do.....