With a median wealth of $221,704 per adult, Australia has emerged as the wealthiest nation in the world in 2011, dislodging Switzerland.

The 2011 Credit Suisse Global Wealth report released on Wednesday said that the average income of Australians is almost four times of adult Americans. The country's total wealth is estimated at $6.4 trillion.

The proportion of Australian adults who are worth over $100,000 is eight times the global average, while those who have net worth less than $1,000 is very low compared to the world average.

The report explained the large proportion of people with low net worth in other nationalities to credit card debt and student loans. The Credit Suisse report came out on the same day that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that new student loans in the U.S. in 2010 breached $100 billion for the first time and total outstanding student loans exceeded $1 trillion.

Credit Suisse explained the rise in wealth to the strong Australian currency, rising property ownership levels and a strong labour market. Property holding accounts for 65 per cent of the wealth held by Australians.

"We shouldn't forget that we are looking at Australia where almost everything is going as well as it could be as in America everything is going as badly as it could be," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Credit Suisse co-head of equities research in Australia Adnan Kucakalic.

He also attributed the greater spread of wealth in Australia to the country's progressive tax system and protection for the labour market.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, however, show that despite the fast-paced growth in wealth, the gap between the richest and poorest Australians have widened. The average net worth of the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians is $2.2 million, while that of the poorest is $32,000.

The growing difference is because the wealthy Australians hold two thirds of the country's total household wealth and the poorest only a mere 1 per cent.