NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The United States holds a disproportionate amount of the world's rich people.

It only takes $34,000 a year, after taxes, to be among the richest 1% in the world. That's for each person living under the same roof, including children. (So a family of four, for example, needs to make $136,000.)

So where do these lucky rich people live? About half of them -- 29 million -- live in the United States, according to calculations by World Bank economist Branko Milanovic in his book The Haves and the Have-Nots.

Another four million live in Germany. The rest are mainly scattered throughout Europe, Latin America and a few Asian countries. Statistically speaking, none live in Africa, China or India despite those being some of the most populous areas of the world.

The numbers put into perspective the idea of a rapidly growing global middle class.

Sure, China and India are seeing their economies grow quickly, and along with that growth, large portions of their populations are also becoming richer. But remember, the emerging world is starting from a very low base to begin with, so its middle class is just that -- still emerging, says Milanovic.

"It doesn't seem right to define as middle class, people who would be on food stamps in the United States," Milanovic said.

The worst income inequality?
The true global middle class, falls far short of owning a home, having a car in a driveway, saving for retirement and sending their kids to college. In fact, people at the world's true middle -- as defined by median income -- live on just $1,225 a year. (And, yes, Milanovic's numbers are adjusted to account for different costs of living across the globe.)

In the grand scheme of things, even the poorest 5% of Americans are better off financially than two thirds of the entire world.

@Jaina
I think you're thinking too deep, the article is mainly pointing out the wealth of the population in a very personal way, remember that US debt is categorized as generational debt, so it doesnt mean US has to borrow to make payrolls remember that only 4%-6% of total US jobs are goverment jobs( state and federal).

My point is even with 8.6% out of work, still almost every American household have 2 to 3 cars in their driveway and even if the car are on loans, they can afford to make monthly payments and thats a fact.

Amerudi...10K

I get it but the article is talking about only 60 million people being in rich 1% in the world. Yes there are some people in China, India and Kenya but lets do the math and put it in fraction format.

In Kenya, a family of 4, two kids and a wife and husband need to be bringing in approx Kshs 1 million every month, (exchange rate Kshs 80/$) to make it to the list, so if half a million families in Kenya bring in over Kshs 1 million every month, the will make up to 0.8%, this is neglegible if you put in fraction form but do you even think half a million kenyans bring in atleast Ksh 1 million every month?

Also note that if you have 4 kids and a wife you have to bring in Kshs 1.3 million. My uncle from my cuzo,step mom's sister inlaw side is very rich but he has 10 kids so he must bring in atleast Kshs 3 million every month to make it to the 1%.

@Harrydre and @ Nabwire..

The forth last line of the article clearly indicate that they've made adjustments to account for living standards in different parts of the world.
When the writer talked about to 1%, thats just top 1% of just over 6.5Billion world population, which is apprx 60-70Million people, so the writer could have talley the earnings from Carlos or Bill gate and the 60-70M person ended on $34K having factor in purchasing power parities.

Nabwire, poverty line in US is an income of less that $18k a year, thats is someone making apprx $9/hr, there are alot of people making $9/hr driving nice cars in America and those are the bottom 5%, infact more than 80% of the 5% own a car or can afford a car, that cannot be said of alot of people in other countries.

@Harrydre,

There is no Kibera life in America, come on man, every house have electricity, running water, heating and cooling systems, bathroom and toilet inside, fire alarms, access to ambulance service within the shortest notice, these things are even hard to access in some decent neighhood in Kenya!

Now china has over 1 million dollar millionaires from 3 in 2004