New York ranked wealthiest city on the planet with 340,000 millionaires

New York City is home to the world’s highest concentration of resident millionaires at 340,000, a report has found.

Tokyo and San Francisco Bay Area are ranked second and third, with resident millionaire populations of 290,300 and 285,000, respectively, according to Henley & Partners, which tracks private wealth and investment migration trends worldwide, and global wealth intelligence provider New World Wealth.

London dropped to fourth place on this year's list with 258,000 resident high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), followed by city-state Singapore with 240,100, Henley & Partners said in the report, which focuses on people with a net worth of $1 million or more.

Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Sydney round out the top 10 wealthiest cities globally, according to the report.

“Traditional wealth magnets such as Monaco and Dubai have also experienced especially strong millionaire growth over the past decade,” Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, said.

“The average wealth of a person living in Monaco exceeds $10 million, making it the top-ranked city on a wealth per capita basis.

“Dubai is another established international wealth centre, with its low tax rates making it a magnet for migrating millionaires from all over the world. Approximately 3,500 HNWIs moved to the city in 2022 alone.”

The world’s ultra-wealthy shed a combined $10 trillion, or 10 per cent, from their net worth in 2022, driven by the triple “shock” of global economic uncertainty, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, a March report by property consultancy Knight Frank said.

The super-rich in Europe were at the centre of the crisis, with ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) losing an average of 17 per cent from their fortunes, Knight Frank said in The Wealth Report 2023.

Knight Frank defines UHNWIs as people who possess a net worth of $30 million or more, including primary residences and second homes not held as investments.

New York is also home to the most centimillionaires — people with a net worth of $100 million or more in investable assets — in the world at 724, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area with 629 and Los Angeles at 480, the Henley & Partners research found.

However, San Francisco Bay Area is home to the most billionaires globally at 63, followed by New York City with 58 and Beijing at 43.

Dubai hosts 68,400 millionaires, 206 centimillionaires and 15 billionaires, according to the report. Abu Dhabi is home to 24,200 millionaires, 68 centimillionaires and four billionaires.

Meanwhile, the US and China dominate the list of fastest-growing cities when it comes to resident millionaires over the past decade, the report said.

China’s Hangzhou topped the list in this respect, with millionaire growth of 105 per cent between 2012 and 2022, the data showed.

Shenzhen and Guangzhou also enjoyed significant HNWI expansion over the past decade, at 98 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively.

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Meanwhile, the three fastest-growing millionaire hotspots in the US are Austin, which recorded a 102 per cent growth in resident HNWIs, West Palm Beach (90 per cent), and Scottsdale (88 per cent), according to Henley & Partners.

Indian cities Bengaluru and Hyderabad recorded 88 per cent and 78 per cent growth, respectively, in millionaires over the past decade, while Sharjah saw an 84 per cent growth.

Top 10 wealthiest cities and their millionaire population

1. New York: 340,000
2. Tokyo: 290,300
3. San Francisco Bay Area: 285,000
4. London: 258,000
5. Singapore: 240,100
6. Los Angeles: 205,400
7. Hong Kong: 129,500
8. Beijing: 128,200
9. Shanghai: 127,200
10. Sydney: 126,900