Sustainable finance
Total Wealth
Definition
Total wealth is the aggregate value of a nation's capital stocks: produced capital (infrastructure, machinery), natural capital (land, forests, minerals, fisheries), human capital (skills and health embodied in people), and net foreign assets — compiled by the World Bank's Changing Wealth of Nations programme for over 140 countries. The sustainability test is whether wealth per capita is maintained or growing as GDP rises: growth accompanied by declining wealth — consuming natural capital without building human and produced capital — is unsustainable by definition.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Total Wealth” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The framework structures adjusted net savings (genuine savings) analysis, natural capital policy, sovereign balance sheet thinking and beyond-GDP measurement.
Why it matters
GDP measures the flow; wealth measures whether the ship is being maintained. Total wealth is sustainability's balance sheet.