These 10 cities are a playground for the world’s billionaires
The fifth edition of the Wealth-X Billionaire Census reveals that billionaire wealth surged by 24% to a record level in 2017, and the billionaire population rebounded by 15% to 2,754 individuals, surpassing the previous peak of 2,473 in 2015.
The report attributes this significant increase in wealth to a synchronized upturn in the world economy and climbing equity markets. In a rapidly shifting geopolitical environment, the influence on the world economy of this most exclusive group of individuals is continuing to rise.
According to the census, there are now more global billionaires than ever before, powered by a vibrant technology sector, as well as dynamic growth in the number of ultra-wealthy individuals in Asia – which, for the first time, overtook North America as the home of the most billionaires.
The findings of the census are derived from Wealth-X’s global database of dossiers ultra-high net worth individuals, which provides unrivalled insight into the status of the world’s wealthy, the constantly changing structure of the billionaire population, and the emerging trends for future wealth creation.
New York was the world’s top billionaire city in 2017, remaining the preferred location for those seeking a luxury blend of finance, culture, commerce, shopping and real estate.
]The city is home to more billionaires than almost every country in the world, with the exception of China, Germany and India. However, New York’s broadly static billionaire population, which rose by one to 103 people, meant its lead over second-placed Hong Kong narrowed sharply.
The robust expansion of Hong Kong’s billionaire population, which increased by almost a third to 93 individuals, was driven by a strong domestic economic performance, the upturn in global financial markets (reflecting the region’s status as one of the world’s largest financial centres) and enhanced trade and investment links with mainland China.
This marked a rapid turnaround from 2016, when a falling stock market contributed to Hong Kong experiencing the largest decline in billionaire numbers of any major city.
San Francisco (including the wider Bay Area) rose two places to be the third-ranked city with a total of 74 billionaires in 2017, leapfrogging both Moscow and London. San Francisco has recorded the strongest growth in billionaire numbers of any US city in recent years, primarily reflecting the huge wealth gains in the technology sector, which has its global base in Silicon Valley.
Moscow and London complete the top-five rankings but both cities lost ground to all their peers. The Russian capital was the only city in the table to experience a drop in its billionaire population, while London held steady with a total of 62 individuals, which was a little surprising given the overall decline in UK billionaire numbers, the report said.
China’s capital, Beijing, recorded the second-largest increase in billionaire population after Hong Kong, adding an additional 19 individuals. The strongest annual growth in billionaire population was in another Chinese city, Shenzhen, situated in Guangdong province close to Hong Kong.
Aside from the city-state economies of Hong Kong and Singapore, the city with the largest share of its country’s billionaire population was Moscow (73%), closely followed by London (69% of the UK total) and Dubai (65% of the UAE total).
Mumbai’s share was just over a third, which was still considerably higher than that of New York (15%) and Beijing (17%).
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