Rise of China boosts emerging economies' share of world's top earners

A new study of the world's top-earning 1 percent found that many more of them are from emerging economies than in previous decades, a trend largely driven by economic growth in China.

Advanced economies still contribute the majority of the world's top 1 percent of earners, with 79 percent of the share in 2012. However, the share was declining, at around 7 to 11 percent lower than it was between 1988 and 2005.

China's proportion of the global 1 percent, meanwhile, rose from 1.3 percent to 3.4 percent between 2005 and 2012, and was well above its 2002 share, which was a mere 0.2 percent.