Global analysis
Closer analysis revealed globally 32.9% of billionaires had similar elite educations to the ultra high net worth individuals, but this shifted to 43.4% in the US.
Harvard graduates accounted for 9% of the ultra high net worth individuals, or UHNWIs and highlighting the level to which the US valued degrees, specifically a masters of business administration, or MBA, degree.
Looking at UHNWIs globally, the study found educational selectivity and cognitive ability varied significantly across countries. South Korea and Chile had the highest elite education among UHNWIs – a rate 11 times that of the lowest ranking ones Qatar and Ukraine. However, nearly everyone in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and South Korea had attended a college or higher.
Ukraine and Kazakhstan had high graduate school attendance; Philippines, Colombia and the US had high Harvard attendance and South Korea, Colombia, Thailand and Norway were the citizens most likely to attain an MBA.
When grouped geographically, Oceania ranked the highest on elite education (43.2%), followed by Africa (38.5%), Latin America (37.2%), North America (34.1%), Asia (34%), Europe (25.8%) and the Middle East (24.5%).
Sweden had both the highest average net worth and the highest percentage of people who had fully inherited their money, while the UK and the US were the most generous when it came to giving as a percentage of their net worth. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were the least generous.
When considering women leaders across the CEO, founder, chairperson and company president positions, Singapore had the highest percentage – about twice that of China and Switzerland. Across industries, business services and finance, banking and investment were the highest, while media and non-profit and social organisations ranked the lowest.
The highest graduate school attendance was for China, but women leaders in the US and the UK had extensively attended Harvard. This mirrored the overall findings.
54% of the world’s leading information technology gurus today had attended elite universities either in the US (Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Williams College or the University of Chicago) or India (the Indian Institutes of Technology) or the UK (Oxford).
