China's wealthy are younger

Since 1992, China's market economy has grown rapidly, and many of today's wealthy began to get rich then. People around age fifty make up the largest group; they were around thirty years old and in their golden entrepreneurial years in 1992.

The average age of China's richest 400 is forty-nine years old, the average for the U.S. is sixty-five.

China's wealthy are hooked on real estate. There are more wealthy in the Information Technology industry in the U.S..

America's wealthy work in a greater variety of fields: sports, the media, self-storage, express delivery services, airplane rental ... these industries do not make one wealthy enough to make the Forbes list in China. The ability of the Internet to create wealth and innovate is strong in the U.S. as always, while some of China's wealthy IT moguls got rich through income from the online gaming industry.

Of China's wealthy, 129 had operations related to real estate; their total worth makes up approximately 35 percent of the total for all 400.

Of America's wealthy, thirty-six people had operations related to real estate; their total worth makes up approximately 6.8 percent of the total for all 400.

Thirty of America's wealthiest 400 have operations related to IT, software, and the Internet, while for China is was only eighteen.

Representatives of the next generation of Chinese and American wealth





This post also appears at Tea Leaf Nation, an Atlantic partner site, and was produced in collaboration with China File, which is also an Atlantic partner site.