How hard is it to achieve net worth A8?
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How hard is it to achieve net worth A8?
China has approximately 2.066 million households with net assets at the A8 level.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Liu Jiaolian
A friend sent me a joke: chatting with some tennis-playing friends, the general consensus was that if you're Chinese, from a small town, working at a top-tier company in a first-tier city, and under 35—you're not a slacker, have a real skill, don't blindly invest or recklessly start businesses—then having 10 to 20 million yuan in net cash is totally normal.
It must be said that the internet has greatly amplified people's anxieties across all dimensions—appearance anxiety, wealth anxiety, parenting pressure, and so on. Often, it's not that the world is truly this stressful, but rather that online jokesters are just blowing smoke too convincingly.
Just like the classic "Zhihu million-yuan annual salary" meme, on the internet, having A8-level net worth (meaning 8-digit net assets, i.e., over 10 million RMB) seems utterly commonplace. Similarly, in crypto circles, A9 (100 million RMB) appears effortlessly attainable, as if leveraging high multiples were as easy as reaching into a pocket.
But back to reality—how difficult is achieving A8 net worth really?
In fact, it's extremely hard.
According to Hurun Research Institute’s 2024 and 2025 reports, the number of households in China with A8-level net worth (i.e., over 10 million RMB) is approximately 2.066 million.
This figure represents a tiny fraction of total households nationwide—only about 0.5%. If calculated per individual, considering that some households may include multiple high-net-worth members, the actual number of individuals at the A8 level might range between 3 to 5 million.
Compared to China’s total population of 1.4 to 1.5 billion, this accounts for roughly 0.2‰ to 0.35‰.
To put it another way, under normal circumstances without dense social interactions or visiting highly crowded places, an average urban resident might encounter around 200 to 1,000 people in a day. This means that if you’re at the A8 level, everyone you see during your daily routine—eating, shopping, commuting—is almost certainly less wealthy than you.
This group of individuals with A8-level net worth or higher is known as “high-net-worth households,” primarily concentrated in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Among them, Beijing leads with 299,000 such households, followed by Shanghai with 265,000.
In terms of composition, entrepreneurs account for 54% (about 1.116 million), white-collar elites (executives, professionals) 34% (around 702,000), professional stock traders 7% (approximately 145,000), and real estate investors 5% (about 103,000).
From a geographical perspective, the rankings go: Beijing (299,000), Shanghai (265,000), Hong Kong (210,000), Shenzhen (79,000), and Guangzhou (73,000).
In recent years, the number of high-net-worth households has slightly declined (down 17,000 in 2024), mainly due to property market adjustments and broader economic conditions. The proportion of real estate investors has notably dropped—from 10% in 2020 to 5% in 2024.
According to CICC data, China’s top 1% wealthiest individuals (about 4.6 million people) have an average asset value of 63 million yuan, while the middle class (around 99 million people) have an average of only 1 million yuan. The remaining 1.3 billion people collectively hold just 30 trillion yuan in total assets.
A8 (10 million yuan) sits at the top of the wealth pyramid—far above the average middle class (A7, one million yuan tier). Even in first-tier cities, families owning ten-million-yuan properties may not reach A8 status, since net worth must deduct liabilities.
Not to mention, the anecdote mentioned at the beginning adds two particularly strict conditions: first, A8 in *net cash*, meaning highly liquid assets—this excludes real estate and other illiquid holdings; second, being no older than 35, or around that age.
Due to cultural preferences for property ownership, many families concentrate their wealth in real estate. However, in recent years, slowing or even declining home prices have led to shrinking net worth. For example, a home purchased in Beijing for 6.8 million yuan in 2022 was valued at only 6.4 million yuan in 2025, resulting in a loss of 1 million yuan including interest.
The truth is, accumulating A8 solely through wages is nearly impossible. Take a typical ride-hailing driver earning 3,000–5,000 yuan per month—after 50 years of work, they still wouldn’t accumulate a million yuan in assets.
Wealth growth among those exceeding A8 relies on investment, entrepreneurship, or resource integration—not mere labor. For instance, successful short-video creators, livestream sellers, or entrepreneurs may rapidly ascend, but ordinary people often lack the knowledge and opportunities.
Moreover, A8+ individuals tend to form closed social circles, making it difficult for outsiders to access valuable information or resources. This is the famous "bus-rushing theory": those who got on first rush to weld the doors shut, preventing latecomers from climbing aboard.
Finally, debt burdens and industry volatility make wealth creation especially challenging. 38.7% of Chinese households have asset-liability ratios exceeding 60%, with high mortgage, education, and elderly care expenses squeezing room for wealth accumulation. Some middle-class families have been downgraded to A5-A6 levels due to sector downturns (e.g., tutoring, real estate), revealing the fragility of their financial structures.
In recent years, with the rise of emerging technologies like the internet, some super individuals have leveraged self-media (such as short videos and official accounts) to build influence and achieve wealth leaps. By starting businesses or investing wisely—generating over 3 million yuan in annual net income consistently for 3–5 years—it’s possible to enter the A8 tier. These represent new opportunities the digital era offers to ordinary people.
However, generally speaking, when a new path to wealth becomes widely known, the golden window is often already closing. Those who jump in late may end up as the ones left holding depreciating assets.
In summary, reaching A8 net worth requires breaking income ceilings, seizing era-specific booms (like real estate or the internet), possessing advanced financial literacy, and avoiding macroeconomic risks. For the vast majority, achieving this through individual effort alone is extremely difficult.
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