New York City has the highest number of rich people in the world, according to a new report by investment migration consultancy firm, Henley & Partners.
Around 345,600 millionaires reside in the city, alongside 15,470 multi-millionaires who have assets worth over $10 million, 737 centi-millionaires (wealth of $100 million or more) and 59 billionaires, the report said, making the financial center of the U.S. the wealthiest city in the world by a large gap.
The report finds that around 4% of New York’s 8.38 million citizens own investable assets – property, cash or stocks – worth over $1 million. The number drops significantly to 15,470 when assessing those who have more than $10 million in assets.
The total private wealth held by New York residents was found to exceed $3 trillion. Remarkably, that’s more than the total private wealth held in most major G-20 countries.
Japan’s capital Tokyo ranked second with 304,900 wealthy individuals. A much smaller proportion of them have assets worth over $10 million. The report found that 7,350 people in Tokyo are multi-millionaires, 263 have above $100 million and 12 are billionaires.
The San Francisco Bay Area home to Silicon Valley completesnthe top three wealthiest cities, with 276,400 rich individuals, 12,890 of whom are multi-millionaires. The report said 623 have assets worth at least $100 million and 62 billionaires live in the city.
Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston are the other U.S. cities in the top 10, ranking 6th, 7th, and 8th, respectively.
Additionally, these cities have become prime retirement destinations, Andrew Amoils, head of research at wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, who collaborated on the report with Henley & Partners, told CNBC.
“Florida is an increasingly popular destination for retired high-net-worth individuals, especially those from the USA’s East Coast cities,” he said.
The top five cities with the fastest growing millionaire populations are not in the U.S., however.
Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Sharjah and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Lusaka in Zambia, and Luanda in Angola are in the lead. In the first half of 2022, they saw an increase of up to 20% in terms of their wealthy population.
The report links this to booming oil and gas industries, which have flourished as energy prices have soared and boosted stock markets in these areas.
Many major cities fell in the rankings or saw a significant reduction of ultra-wealthy people living there.
Of the top 10 cities with the largest number of wealthy people, seven saw a decline. Only the San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore and Houston saw growth. New York has already seen a 12% drop in wealthy individuals in 2022, while Los Angeles saw a 6% decline and Chicago’s proportion of ultra-wealthy citizens fell by 4%.
Another factor to consider is that overall wealth has declined in 2022, Amoils said in a paper released alongside the report.
