The number of U.S. millionaires climbed to record levels in 2018, with the U.S. reporting more millionaires than Sweden’s total population, according to a report.
A survey conducted by the Spectrem Group, a firm which provides specialized research to investors, found that more than 10.2 million U.S. households had a net worth valued between $1 million and $5 million, an increase of 2.5 percent from the previous year, Bloomberg News reported.
For reference, Sweden’s population currently hovers around 10 million residents.
The survey also found that Americans lucky enough to call themselves multimillionaires also gained in number.
The number of American households with a net worth between $5 million and $25 million, about 1.4 million households, increased by 3.7 percent.
Among the wealthiest Americans, those reporting more than $25 million in assets, also increased by 0.6 percent, according to the survey.
The number of wealthiest Americans, of which there are currently 173,000, more than doubled since the financial crisis.
The number of U.S. millionaires has been going up for several years now. A survey from the group released last year found that the number of U.S. millionaires increased by more than 6 percent between 2016 and 2017. During that year, the U.S. added 700,000 millionaires.
But some experts say that even though the number of millionaires increased, the pace of growth in wealth among Americans has slowed.
“Some of this slowing in wealth creation has to be expected due in part to softening equity markets, after almost a decade of very strong returns, coupled with the early effects of the tax reform on affluent households,” Greg Soueid, head of wealth management at advisory firm Treliant, told Bloomberg News.
“That said, the growth rate of wealthy households continues to outpace middle-class growth rates,” he added.