New York is the richest city in the world, with 359,500 millionaires and 60 billionaires, although California’s Bay Area is not far behind, according to a new study.
New York’s millionaire population has surged 48% in the past decade, despite concerns that wealth flight and the Covid-19 pandemic will hollow out the city’s wealthy population. Report by Henley & Partners in partnership with New World Wealth. New York now has more millionaires than the entire population of Orlando or Pittsburgh. New York residents currently own more than $3 trillion in wealth, which is more than the GDP of Brazil, Italy or Canada.
However, San Francisco and the Bay Area are catching up quickly. The number of millionaires in the Bay Area has surged 82% over the past decade, to 305,700. The report, which compared the world’s wealthy populations as of December, showed the Bay Area leads the pack with 68 billionaires.
America’s lead as the world’s largest creator of millionaires and billionaires is growing. According to the report, 11 of the 50 richest cities are located in the United States.
The surge in tech wealth over the past decade, coupled with a rise in stock markets and trading, has created record amounts of wealth. The pandemic fiscal stimulus has effectively boosted wealth creation, especially at the top, with the wealth of the richest 1% of Americans soaring by more than 40%, according to the Federal Reserve.
Andrew Amores, director of research at New World Wealth, said: “The United States continues to dominate the world’s richest cities due to its dominance of global finance, technology and entertainment.” Amores added: Notably, U.S. cities have significantly outperformed other Western cities in terms of overall wealth and millionaire growth over the past decade.”
The fortunes of some cities around the world have reversed. Tokyo, which was the world’s richest city a decade ago, is now in third place, with the number of millionaires falling 5% to 298,300.
London, the world’s richest city for years, fell to fifth place as Brexit, Russian sanctions and other policies slowed the migration of wealth. The city’s millionaire population has dropped by 10% in the past decade.
China joins the top ten for the first time, with the number of millionaires in Beijing increasing by 90% over the past decade to 125,600 millionaires. However, Amors said the economic slowdown and wealth flight were causing a reversal in wealth creation, with the millionaire population falling 4% last year.
Singapore, which benefited from wealth flowing out of China, rose two places to fourth place, with the number of millionaires growing by 64% to 244,800. With more than 3,400 millionaires moving to Singapore in 2023 alone, Amors said Singapore will overtake Tokyo in the rankings “very soon”.
Los Angeles also moved up the rankings, rising two places to sixth place, with a 45% increase in the number of millionaires.
Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, said that over the past decade, financial markets have been the main engine of global wealth creation.
He said: “Last year the S&P 500 rose 24%, the Nasdaq rose 43%, and Bitcoin rose as much as 155%, all of which boosted the wealth of wealthy investors.” “Artificial intelligence, robots and blockchain Rapid advances in technology provide new opportunities for wealth creation and accumulation.”
Here’s the full ranking of the world’s richest cities, according to Henley & Partners and New World Wealth:
1. New York City
2. California Bay Area
3. Tokyo
4. Singapore
5. London
6. Los Angeles
7. Paris and Ile-de-France
8. Sydney
9. Hong Kong
10. Beijing
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