Where Does the World’s Ultra-Wealthy Population Live Today?
The pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and supply chain disruptions have thrown the world into disarray in recent years, but that hasn’t stopped the world’s ultra-wealthy population from growing at a strong clip.
New data from this year’s Wealth Report by Knight Frank shows that the number of Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs) grew 9.3% between 2020 and 2021. Nearly all regions saw an increase in ultra-wealthy people over the time period.
The above visualization from the report explores the global distribution of uber-affluent people. Below, we’ll also look at how the populations are projected to grow in the future.
The World’s Ultra-Wealthy, by Region
UHNWIs are defined as having net assets of $30 million or more, including their primary residence.
With over 230,000 UHNWIs in 2021, North America has the largest subset globally, followed by Asia at nearly 170,000. Over the last year, the ultra-wealthy population rose 12.2% and 7.2% across these regions, respectively.
| Region | UHNWIs (2021) | Change (2020–21) |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 233,590 | 12.2% |
| Asia | 169,889 | 7.2% |
| Europe | 154,008 | 7.4% |
| Australasia | 24,245 | 9.8% |
| Latin America | 10,337 | 7.6% |
| Middle East | 9,717 | 8.8% |
| Russia & CIS* | 6,542 | 11.2% |
| Africa | 2,240 | -0.8% |
| World | 610,569 | 9.3% |
*Commonwealth of Independent States
Following North America and Asia is Europe. In 2021, the top countries for the ultra-wealthy were France (30,000), Germany (28,000), U.K. (25,000) and Italy (17,000). On a per capita basis, Monaco is the highest worldwide, at five people per thousand residents.
Interestingly, the ultra-rich in Russia & (Read more...)