WELLINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The net worth of the richest 20 percent of New Zealand households has risen by 394,000 NZ dollars (267,573 U.S. dollars) since 2015, to reach a median of 1.75 million NZ dollars (1.19 million U.S. dollars), the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.
The net worth of the bottom 40 percent has not increased over the same period from the year ended June 2015 to the June 2018 year, Stats NZ said.
The median net worth of the typical Kiwi household in the June 2018 year was 340,000 NZ dollars (230,690 U.S. dollars), up from 289,000 NZ dollars (196,086 U.S. dollars)three years ago, mainly reflecting rising property values, it said, adding the median means half of all households are richer and half are poorer than this value.
"The median net worth of the top 20 percent of surveyed New Zealand households has increased about 131,000 NZ dollars (888,83 U.S. dollars)a year. This equates to almost 360 NZ dollars (244.26 U.S. dollars) every day for the past three years," labor market and households senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.
Household net worth in New Zealand is concentrated in the top 20 percent of Kiwi households surveyed in the past year. That group collectively holds about 70 percent of total household net worth, Attewell said, adding that wealth is unevenly distributed across the population, and this is unchanged from three years ago.
In the June 2018 year, compared with three years earlier, 55 percent more households had a net worth of more than 1.5 million NZ dollars (1.02 million U.S. dollars), statistics showed.
"However, we also know the survey may not gain a representative picture of a small number of the extremely rich," Attewell said.
Half of all households held 94 percent of New Zealand's net worth. This is very similar to the distribution in 2015, when it was 93 percent, Attewell said.
New Zealanders' individual net worth increased with age until around retirement. People tend to build net worth throughout their lives, Attewell added.
