The number of super rich people in China has increased to record high despite the slowdown in the nation’s economic growth in the past year, according to the China Ultra High Net Wealth Report 2014-2015 released recently.
According to the report, jointly released by China Minsheng Bank and the Hurun Research Institute on April 2, Thursday, more than 17,000 people from the Chinese mainland hold assets worth at least 500 million yuan ($81.35 million), although not more than 1,000 names were listed in the report from 2008 to 2013.
The report showed that the number of China Ultra High Net Wealth people this year was the highest in 15 years since the China Rich List was released by the Hurun Research Institute.
According to the womenofchina.cn, the 2014-2015 report was the first report to provide information and details on where the rich people live, how they acquired their wealth and what their lifestyles are.
The report showed that the super rich have accumulated total assets worth 31 trillion yuan, which is 10 times the gross domestic product (GDP) of Norway or 20 times bigger than that of the Philippines.
The report indicated that most of the Chinese super rich have an average age of 51 with average assets of 1.82 billion yuan. Most of the people on the list are entrepreneurs, professional investors or real-estate developers.
According to the survey, nearly 300 of them have assets worth at least 10 billion yuan, and about 5,100 have assets worth 1 billion to 2 billion yuan. The rest have 500 million to 1 billion yuan.
"We raised the threshold of the report to 500 million yuan, a new high. Still, the number of China ultra-high net-wealth people this year is much more than in previous years," Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of Hurun Research Institute, said at a press conference.
Hoogewerf attributed the growth of the super rich to China's economic development and stock market recovery. He noted that majority of the entrepreneurs came from the manufacturing sector and have their own companies listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen.
The report also showed the attitudes of the rich toward life and investment where many of them are optimistic about the present business climate. Almost half of them favor investing in jade and jewelry, while 29 percent love to collect paintings and calligraphy, the report added.