Let's think about something interesting. Imagine that all the cash on the planet was simply divided equally among all people. A farmer from Wisconsin would get as much as a potter in New Delhi, a shepherd in Namibia, or a doctor in Sydney. Sounds utopian, but what number would that be? The simple answer: everyone would get exactly enough for a Dacia Sandero. Pretty funny, right?

The thing is, it depends on how much money is actually circulating in the world. When they talk about cash, they mean the M2 money supply — it's not just bills in your pocket, but the money in circulation plus bank deposits with high liquidity, savings accounts, and other assets that can be quickly converted into cash. Essentially, it's everything you could reasonably access quickly.

According to CEIC, the global M2 money supply in 2024 was $123.3 trillion. It sounds like an astronomical sum, but when you divide it by 8.16 billion people, it comes out to $15,108 per person. Or roughly €13,944. That’s about what an average household spends in two years, or enough to buy a used car. Yes, that very Dacia Sandero without extra options.

Interestingly, the situation varies across countries. Taking Spain alone, the M2 money supply in December 2024 was $1.648 trillion. With a population of about 49 million Spaniards, each would get $33,571 or roughly €30,968. So, in this hypothetical scenario, Spaniards would be nearly twice as wealthy as the average person on the planet. This shows how unevenly financial resources are distributed worldwide.

Of course, this is all theory. In practice, the total amount of money in the world is only part of the story. Global wealth includes real estate, stocks, assets that are not so easy to convert into cash. According to UBS, private wealth worldwide reached $487.9 trillion in 2024. That means humanity’s real wealth is four times larger than just the M2 money supply. But that’s a whole other story.