Irish millionaires soar by 10% to more than 33,000

IRELAND may still be awaiting its first official trillionaire, but the number of millionaires in Irish society continues to grow as the country gets richer.

Yesterday’s Wealth of the Nation report — issued by Bank of Ireland Private Banking — showed that the number of millionaires in Irish society now number 33,000 (as of the end of last year) — up by 3,000, or 10%, from the previous year.

Yesterday’s report said that personal disposal income in Ireland has doubled over the past decade, with Bank of Ireland suggesting that this figure will double again over the next ten years.

The breakdown of where the millions are shows that around 330 people are valued at €30 million or higher.

Another 2,970 are valued at between €5m and €30m, while 29,700 are worth between €1m and €5m. That means that around 1% of the population hold 20% of Ireland’s wealth. Away from Millionaire’s Row, the average wealth per head in Ireland still stood at a very respectable 196,000 — up from 168,000 over the past two years.

According to the latest wealth report, Ireland’s net wealth grew by 19% to 805bn last year — one of the fastest growth rates amongst OECD member countries — with residential property assets the key driver of growth.

“Our original forecasts for the wealth of the domestic household remain on track and we expect net assets to increase to €1.2 trillion by 2015, an increase of 80% in the coming decade,” according to Bank of Ireland Private Banking senior economist Pat O’Sullivan yesterday.

We believe that the asset allocation of Irish households will increasingly shift towards financial assets.