Here's an interesting thought experiment: what if we gathered all the money in the world and divided it equally among every person on the planet? It sounds like utopia, but let's calculate how much money there really is in the world and what it would mean for each of us.

Imagine: a farmer from Wisconsin, a potter from New Delhi, a goat herder from Namibia, and a dentist from Sydney suddenly receiving the same amount. Does that sound funny? But the numbers are quite intriguing.

To understand how much money is actually circulating in the global economy, we need to grasp one important point. When talking about cash in the global economy, they refer to the money supply M2. This isn't just bills in your wallet but a broader concept: money in circulation, highly liquid bank deposits (up to two years), savings accounts, and money market accounts. Essentially, these are all the funds that can be relatively quickly converted into cash.

According to CEIC data for 2024, the global money supply M2 amounts to $123.3 trillion. Sounds astronomical, right? But when you divide this sum by 8.16 billion people, a completely different picture emerges.

So, how much money per person would there be if distributed evenly? About $15,108 per person. Or roughly €13,944 at the current exchange rate. That’s approximately the cost of a used car, two years’ worth of expenses for an average household, or, as jokes go, a brand-new Dacia Sandero without extras.

Interestingly, if we do the same calculation but only for Spain, the numbers look more appealing. Spain’s M2 money supply in December 2024 was $1.648 trillion, with a population of about 49 million. That means each Spaniard would get around $33,571, or approximately €30,968. Nearly twice the global average.

By the way, it’s important not to confuse the money supply M2 with global wealth. According to UBS, the latter amounts to nearly $488 trillion and includes real estate, assets, and other property. But that’s a whole different scale and a different story.

So, if someone ever asks you how much money there really is in the world and how it’s distributed, now you know the answer. Of course, such an even distribution is impossible in reality, and the economy is much more complex. But isn’t it fun to dream?