Where Do The Wealthiest People In The World Live?
Investors didn’t expect 2023 to be the bumper year for returns it ended up being. Despite tightening monetary policies and surging bond yields, equities continued their strong performance (helped hugely by enthusiasm around the potential of artificial intelligence).
This has boosted wealth creation, and the growth of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the world.
In the following graphic, Visual Capitalist's Omri Wallach maps out where the 600,000+ UHNWIs reside, as of the end 2023. To be categorized as such, a person’s net worth needs to be higher than $30 million. This map uses data from the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024.
It’s worth noting that some countries that are known hotspots for the wealthy—including Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia—do not have specified numbers in the source report and have not been covered in this map and article.
Ranked: Countries By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals
At the top of the ranks, accounting for more than one-third of the wealthiest in the world, the U.S. is home to 225,000 UHNWIs, more than double the number of 99,000 UHNWIs in China.
Together, the world’s two largest economies are home to 50% of the world’s wealthiest.
| Rank | Territory | UHNWI Population | YoY Growth | % of World UHNWIs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 225,077 | +7.9% | 35.9% |
| 2 | 🇨🇳 China | 98,551 | +3.3% | 15.7% |
| 3 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 29,021 | +1.1% | 4.6% |
| 4 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 27,928 | +2.0% | 4.5% |
| 5 | 🇫🇷 France | 24,941 | +0.2% | 4.0% |
| 6 | 🇬🇧 UK | 23,072 | +3.1% | 3.7% |
| 7 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 21,710 | +0.3% | 3.5% |
| 8 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 15,952 | +3.8% | 2.5% |
| 9 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 15,347 | +2.9% | 2.4% |
| 10 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 14,734 | +5.2% | 2.4% |
| 11 | 🇮🇳 India | 13,263 | +6.1% | 2.1% |
| 12 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 10,149 | +1.7% | 1.6% |
| 13 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 8,390 | +0.2% | 1.3% |
| 14 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 7,640 | -0.3% | 1.2% |
| 15 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 7,310 | +5.6% | 1.2% |
| 16 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 5,957 | +2.5% | 1.0% |
| 17 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 4,783 | +4.0% | 0.8% |
| 18 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 4,125 | +2.5% | 0.7% |
| 19 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 2,587 | +2.9% | 0.4% |
| 20 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 2,276 | +1.1% | 0.4% |
| 21 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 2,167 | +0.3% | 0.3% |
| 22 | 🇹🇷 Türkiye | 1,932 | +9.7% | 0.3% |
| 23 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 1,890 | +0.4% | 0.3% |
| 24 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 1,479 | +4.2% | 0.2% |
| 25 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 1,269 | +4.1% | 0.2% |
| 26 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 889 | +0.8% | 0.1% |
| 27 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 835 | -1.3% | 0.1% |
| 28 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 800 | +3.0% | 0.1% |
| 29 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 754 | +4.3% | 0.1% |
| 30 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 752 | +2.4% | 0.1% |
| N/A | 🌐 Other | 51,039 | +0.1% | 8.1% |
| N/A | 🌍 World | 626,619 | +4.2% | N/A |
Note: The organization uses a dynamic proprietary wealth-sizing model created by their data engineering team to arrive at these figures. Exact numbers may change between different editions of this report.
Ranked third, Germany, has close to 30,000 UHNWIs, following the pattern of the biggest economic powerhouses having the highest share of the wealthy.
This correlation remains generally constant outside the top three as well, even if exact positions aren’t quite maintained:
Canada, 10th largest economy, 4th in share of wealthiest people.
Australia, 14th largest economy, 9th in wealthiest people.
Switzerland, 20th largest economy, 10th in wealthiest people.
India, 6th largest economy, 11th in wealthiest people.
Together, these top countries by share of UHNWIs account for 92% of all individuals with a net worth greater than $30 million.
Other countries, not specifically mentioned in the report, have 59,039 UHNWIs, or 8.1% of the world’s total.
Ranked: Regions By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals
Unsurprisingly, buoyed by the U.S. and China, North America and Asia are the top two regions by wealthiest individuals.
Europe is close behind Asia however; a reminder of the region’s collective economic might.
| Rank | Region | UHNWI Population | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North America | 253,066 | +7.2% |
| 2 | Asia | 165,442 | +2.6% |
| 3 | Europe | 155,232 | +1.8% |
| 4 | Middle East | 18,790 | +6.2% |
| 5 | Oceania | 17,934 | +2.9% |
| 6 | South America | 13,159 | -3.6% |
| 7 | Africa | 2,996 | +3.8% |
The oil-rich Middle East also outperforms on the wealthy individuals metric and saw the highest YoY growth in the ultra-wealthy after North America.
The world as a whole grew its UHNWI population by 4.2% and only South America saw a contraction in numbers between 2022 and 2023.