According to WealthInsight’s World City Millionaire Rankings Report 2013, Tokyo is home to more millionaires than any other city in the world, followed by New York and London. But interestingly, a different pattern emerges if you look at the cities with the most multi-millionaires or billionaires. Dubai, often associated with extreme wealth and opulence, only just make it into the top 20 billionaire list and is nowhere to be found in the top 20 millionaires or multi-millionaires. And in Mexico City, where an estimated 40% of the population live below the poverty line, there are in fact more than 100,000 millionaires.
Here’s a round-up of the top 20 cities with the most millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires:
Millionaires
1. Tokyo – 461,000 millionaires
2. New York – 389,000
3. London – 281,000
4. Paris – 219,000
5. Frankfurt – 217,000
6. Beijing – 213,000
7. Osaka – 190,000
8. Hong Kong – 187,000
9. Shanghai – 166,000
10. Singapore – 157,000
11. Seoul – 131,000
12. Munich – 130,000
13. Rome – 127,000
14. Los Angeles – 126,000
15. Toronto – 118,000
16. Chicago – 107,000
17. Sydney – 104,000
18. Houston – 103,000
19. Mexico City – 102,000
20. Moscow – 101,000
Multi-millionaires
1. London – 4,224 multi-millionaires
2. Tokyo – 3,525
3. Singapore – 3,154
4. New York – 2,929
5. Hong Kong – 2,560
6. Frankfurt – 1,868
7. Mexico City – 1,850
8. Paris – 1,500
9. Osaka – 1,450
10. Beijing – 1,318
11. Seoul – 1,302
12. Toronto – 1,184
13. Munich – 1,113
14. Shanghai – 1,028
15. Los Angeles – 950
16. Rome – 945
17. Sydney – 931
18. Moscow – 821
19. Chicago – 804
20. Houston – 777
Billionaires
1. New York – 70 billionaires
2. Moscow – 64
3. London – 54
4. Hong Kong – 40
5. Beijing – 29
6. Mumbai – 26
7. Istanbul – 24
8. Shanghai – 23
9. Paris – 22
10. Los Angeles – 19
11. Shenzhen – 19
12. Chicago – 15
13. Singapore – 13
14. Tokyo – 12
15. Guangzhou – 12
16. San Francisco – 11
17. Dallas – 11
18. Dubai – 11
19. Houston – 10
20. Sao Paolo – 10
Apparently, according to the reports, the country to watch is China which is predicted to overtake Japan and Germany to become the second largest wealth market in the world by 2020. India is also expected to rise up the rankings, from 11th place in 2012 to 5th place by 2020.
Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.
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20 Comments
These numbers are just wrong. There is NO way that half of the entire population of Frankfurt, Germany are millionaires! The German city with the most millionaires is Hamburg. I wonder where these people got their numbers…
It depends on how you define the cities, Jan. In the case of Frankfurt, they are not just looking at the city (which, by the way, has a population of about 700,000, not around 430,000) but the entire urban area, with an estimated population of 2.9 million. The figures for New York on the other hand, I think relate only to Manhattan.
Taking these parameters into account, it puts Frankfurt as the city with the highest concentration of millionaires per person in the world, with 75 for everyone 1,000 people. Second is Munich with around 50 per 1,000, and third New York with around 45. Rome, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto make up the remaining top 10.
Great article, whether the figures are 100% accurate or not, it makes fascinating reading. I thought there might have been more US Cities in the mix, and perhaps even a few more British cities.
Yet another bogus, pointless, made-up, buch of statistics thats not worth a second look. Who took the survey, how did you get access to this information, why would we believe this junk ?
I’m guessing you didn’t make any attempt to actually READ the article…? It very clearly states within the first few words of the post that the report was conducted by a company called WealthInsight (https://www.wealthinsight.com). They are a company that specialises in data analysis within the wealth sector.
They make some of their information public whilst some reports are only available on a paid basis.
Wondering how Abu Dhabi is not in any list. It’s the richest city in the world with the highest GDP per capita, surely there must by more than 1 billionaires living there? I guess it’s just hard to get data on so instead they only researched a pre-selected list of cities.
Amazing stats – had no idea London would ranked so high in a report like this, but money and banking/investments go together so it all makes sense
Did they base the “million” from the local currency? Because that would be very ridiculous! 1 Million Japanese Yen is just US$10,000 at the current conversion!
Errr… no… they didn’t, Amelia! If you click through to their site, you can read about the methodology.
I agree with Paul that Wealthinside probably got the numbers right. However,…have another look at the “title” of the article. (The wealthiest CITIES in the world) That brings up some questions.
All cities on the list are fascinatingly great cities that offer a ton of opportunities and quality to their inhabitants. I live in Zurich Switzerland. Without a doubt one of the cities with the highest quality of living says the Mercer Report (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Survey).
Is that because the CITY is wealthy? Or is it the tax payers? The corporations, investors, entrepreneurs, culture & sub-culture?
How many billionaires in this world actually pay a respective and fair amount towards their local tax dues? Did the study consider the influence that different tax laws, investment culture and other factors have?
Hence…in my eyes the article does not support it’s own title. That title should rather be something like: “The cities that are home to the highest number of wealthiest individuals”. People love those “top 10” lists. Helps to simplify our memorized view on the world.
I like reading these list. I’m surprised Vancouver didn’t make this list. And I am surprised Toronto did so well.
Hi Jan, as for Frankfurt they are likely using the greater metro region. As per Wikipedia “The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5,600,000[4] and is Germany’s second-largest metropolitan region”
It would be nice it the blog article provided the criteria used to create this somewhat arbitrary list, but it is interesting.
Europe millionaires make up a lot of the rich in London England, escaping the Euro and southern and eastern Europe.
The London luxury property trade has been very happy as a result.
Most of Greece has gone to Germany to work, a nation making profit out of the destruction of the rest of the Eurozone. Rich Greeks have bought into the luxury propery investment in Germany. I keep hearing Munich amongst Greek relatives.
Rich people in London also include rich Russians and Chinese buying into serviced luxury property.
Now these are the immigrants we love.
I think this is a great example of the possibilities that are out there to become a millionaire. It’s possible so go for it!!
great article but I doubt that, as far as Italy is concerned (3rd richest economy in Europe after Germany and France), Rome has more millionaires than Milan…
Any Italian would tell you that that’s preposterous..
@Daniel – As far as Abu Dhabi is concerned, this list shows exactly how the wealth is distributed there. This is NOT gdp per capita, neither overall gap, because there you would have Abu Dhabi in the top. This list says how many rich people are in the city. It seems there are very few in Abu Dhabi !!! Seems to me that there are only a few guys there being multibillionaires and the rest just count in thousands ;)
You may notice absence of Scandinavia too, because there only the Government can be rich, and a private person “just fine”. In Scandinavian countries you have socialism de-facto, which makes it difficult to accumulate wealth.
This is a good job. An appreciated piece for academic and social purpose. I only wish the research would have covered Africa. I understand there might be some limitations getting the data but some of us can furnish you with vital links to make it inclusive.
I would assume that it’s the greater metropolitan area of New York. I grew up in northern New Jersey and sports figures and recording stars lived near us. Long Island is home to Billy Joel and others. And then there’s Connecticut …
New York is the BEST… I Love New York N Time Square I also Like Chicago… Boston… WashingtonD.C… Los Angeles… California… San Fracisco… Dallas
I am assuming that the ownership of property/home is not including in the wealth calculations – perhaps just liquid/investable income? If property wealth was included, one would assume that cities like San Francisco would be in the millionaire and multi-millionaire lists, since homes are so expensive there.
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Here’s a round-up of the top 20 cities with the most millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires:
Millionaires
1. Tokyo – 461,000 millionaires
2. New York – 389,000
3. London – 281,000
4. Paris – 219,000
5. Frankfurt – 217,000
6. Beijing – 213,000
7. Osaka – 190,000
8. Hong Kong – 187,000
9. Shanghai – 166,000
10. Singapore – 157,000
11. Seoul – 131,000
12. Munich – 130,000
13. Rome – 127,000
14. Los Angeles – 126,000
15. Toronto – 118,000
16. Chicago – 107,000
17. Sydney – 104,000
18. Houston – 103,000
19. Mexico City – 102,000
20. Moscow – 101,000
Multi-millionaires
1. London – 4,224 multi-millionaires
2. Tokyo – 3,525
3. Singapore – 3,154
4. New York – 2,929
5. Hong Kong – 2,560
6. Frankfurt – 1,868
7. Mexico City – 1,850
8. Paris – 1,500
9. Osaka – 1,450
10. Beijing – 1,318
11. Seoul – 1,302
12. Toronto – 1,184
13. Munich – 1,113
14. Shanghai – 1,028
15. Los Angeles – 950
16. Rome – 945
17. Sydney – 931
18. Moscow – 821
19. Chicago – 804
20. Houston – 777
Billionaires
1. New York – 70 billionaires
2. Moscow – 64
3. London – 54
4. Hong Kong – 40
5. Beijing – 29
6. Mumbai – 26
7. Istanbul – 24
8. Shanghai – 23
9. Paris – 22
10. Los Angeles – 19
11. Shenzhen – 19
12. Chicago – 15
13. Singapore – 13
14. Tokyo – 12
15. Guangzhou – 12
16. San Francisco – 11
17. Dallas – 11
18. Dubai – 11
19. Houston – 10
20. Sao Paolo – 10
Apparently, according to the reports, the country to watch is China which is predicted to overtake Japan and Germany to become the second largest wealth market in the world by 2020. India is also expected to rise up the rankings, from 11th place in 2012 to 5th place by 2020.
Here’s a round-up of the top 20 cities with the most millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires:
Millionaires
1. Tokyo – 461,000 millionaires
2. New York – 389,000
3. London – 281,000
4. Paris – 219,000
5. Frankfurt – 217,000
6. Beijing – 213,000
7. Osaka – 190,000
8. Hong Kong – 187,000
9. Shanghai – 166,000
10. Singapore – 157,000
11. Seoul – 131,000
12. Munich – 130,000
13. Rome – 127,000
14. Los Angeles – 126,000
15. Toronto – 118,000
16. Chicago – 107,000
17. Sydney – 104,000
18. Houston – 103,000
19. Mexico City – 102,000
20. Moscow – 101,000
Multi-millionaires
1. London – 4,224 multi-millionaires
2. Tokyo – 3,525
3. Singapore – 3,154
4. New York – 2,929
5. Hong Kong – 2,560
6. Frankfurt – 1,868
7. Mexico City – 1,850
8. Paris – 1,500
9. Osaka – 1,450
10. Beijing – 1,318
11. Seoul – 1,302
12. Toronto – 1,184
13. Munich – 1,113
14. Shanghai – 1,028
15. Los Angeles – 950
16. Rome – 945
17. Sydney – 931
18. Moscow – 821
19. Chicago – 804
20. Houston – 777
Billionaires
1. New York – 70 billionaires
2. Moscow – 64
3. London – 54
4. Hong Kong – 40
5. Beijing – 29
6. Mumbai – 26
7. Istanbul – 24
8. Shanghai – 23
9. Paris – 22
10. Los Angeles – 19
11. Shenzhen – 19
12. Chicago – 15
13. Singapore – 13
14. Tokyo – 12
15. Guangzhou – 12
16. San Francisco – 11
17. Dallas – 11
18. Dubai – 11
19. Houston – 10
20. Sao Paolo – 10
Apparently, according to the reports, the country to watch is China which is predicted to overtake Japan and Germany to become the second largest wealth market in the world by 2020. India is also expected to rise up the rankings, from 11th place in 2012 to 5th place by 2020.
These numbers are just wrong. There is NO way that half of the entire population of Frankfurt, Germany are millionaires! The German city with the most millionaires is Hamburg. I wonder where these people got their numbers…
It depends on how you define the cities, Jan. In the case of Frankfurt, they are not just looking at the city (which, by the way, has a population of about 700,000, not around 430,000) but the entire urban area, with an estimated population of 2.9 million. The figures for New York on the other hand, I think relate only to Manhattan.
Taking these parameters into account, it puts Frankfurt as the city with the highest concentration of millionaires per person in the world, with 75 for everyone 1,000 people. Second is Munich with around 50 per 1,000, and third New York with around 45. Rome, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto make up the remaining top 10.
Great article, whether the figures are 100% accurate or not, it makes fascinating reading. I thought there might have been more US Cities in the mix, and perhaps even a few more British cities.
Yet another bogus, pointless, made-up, buch of statistics thats not worth a second look. Who took the survey, how did you get access to this information, why would we believe this junk ?
I’m guessing you didn’t make any attempt to actually READ the article…? It very clearly states within the first few words of the post that the report was conducted by a company called WealthInsight (https://www.wealthinsight.com). They are a company that specialises in data analysis within the wealth sector.
They make some of their information public whilst some reports are only available on a paid basis.
Wondering how Abu Dhabi is not in any list. It’s the richest city in the world with the highest GDP per capita, surely there must by more than 1 billionaires living there? I guess it’s just hard to get data on so instead they only researched a pre-selected list of cities.
Amazing stats – had no idea London would ranked so high in a report like this, but money and banking/investments go together so it all makes sense
Did they base the “million” from the local currency? Because that would be very ridiculous! 1 Million Japanese Yen is just US$10,000 at the current conversion!
Errr… no… they didn’t, Amelia! If you click through to their site, you can read about the methodology.
I agree with Paul that Wealthinside probably got the numbers right. However,…have another look at the “title” of the article. (The wealthiest CITIES in the world) That brings up some questions.
All cities on the list are fascinatingly great cities that offer a ton of opportunities and quality to their inhabitants. I live in Zurich Switzerland. Without a doubt one of the cities with the highest quality of living says the Mercer Report (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Survey).
Is that because the CITY is wealthy? Or is it the tax payers? The corporations, investors, entrepreneurs, culture & sub-culture?
How many billionaires in this world actually pay a respective and fair amount towards their local tax dues? Did the study consider the influence that different tax laws, investment culture and other factors have?
Hence…in my eyes the article does not support it’s own title. That title should rather be something like: “The cities that are home to the highest number of wealthiest individuals”. People love those “top 10” lists. Helps to simplify our memorized view on the world.
I like reading these list. I’m surprised Vancouver didn’t make this list. And I am surprised Toronto did so well.
Hi Jan, as for Frankfurt they are likely using the greater metro region. As per Wikipedia “The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5,600,000[4] and is Germany’s second-largest metropolitan region”
It would be nice it the blog article provided the criteria used to create this somewhat arbitrary list, but it is interesting.
Europe millionaires make up a lot of the rich in London England, escaping the Euro and southern and eastern Europe.
The London luxury property trade has been very happy as a result.
Most of Greece has gone to Germany to work, a nation making profit out of the destruction of the rest of the Eurozone. Rich Greeks have bought into the luxury propery investment in Germany. I keep hearing Munich amongst Greek relatives.
Rich people in London also include rich Russians and Chinese buying into serviced luxury property.
Now these are the immigrants we love.
I think this is a great example of the possibilities that are out there to become a millionaire. It’s possible so go for it!!
great article but I doubt that, as far as Italy is concerned (3rd richest economy in Europe after Germany and France), Rome has more millionaires than Milan…
Any Italian would tell you that that’s preposterous..
@Daniel – As far as Abu Dhabi is concerned, this list shows exactly how the wealth is distributed there. This is NOT gdp per capita, neither overall gap, because there you would have Abu Dhabi in the top. This list says how many rich people are in the city. It seems there are very few in Abu Dhabi !!! Seems to me that there are only a few guys there being multibillionaires and the rest just count in thousands ;)
You may notice absence of Scandinavia too, because there only the Government can be rich, and a private person “just fine”. In Scandinavian countries you have socialism de-facto, which makes it difficult to accumulate wealth.
This is a good job. An appreciated piece for academic and social purpose. I only wish the research would have covered Africa. I understand there might be some limitations getting the data but some of us can furnish you with vital links to make it inclusive.
I would assume that it’s the greater metropolitan area of New York. I grew up in northern New Jersey and sports figures and recording stars lived near us. Long Island is home to Billy Joel and others. And then there’s Connecticut …
New York is the BEST… I Love New York N Time Square I also Like Chicago… Boston… WashingtonD.C… Los Angeles… California… San Fracisco… Dallas
I am assuming that the ownership of property/home is not including in the wealth calculations – perhaps just liquid/investable income? If property wealth was included, one would assume that cities like San Francisco would be in the millionaire and multi-millionaire lists, since homes are so expensive there.