Money

Visualizing the Global Millionaire Population

Published

6 years ago

January 4, 2018

Jeff Desjardins

Visualizing the Global Millionaire Population

A look at wealth by region, fortune size, and city

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

When we think of the term “millionaire”, it’s only natural for our thoughts to be skewed towards the famous business magnates that have amassed giant fortunes, like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or Warren Buffett.

However, the reality is that those types of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) with fortunes above $30 million are a fairly rare commodity – and when it’s all said and done, they make up a very tiny percentage of the millionaire population as a whole.

Fortune Size	Number (Globally)	% of Millionaire Population
$30+ mm	160,000	1.0%
$5mm - $30mm	1,500,000	9.1%
$1mm - $5mm	14,860,000	90.0%

The vast majority of millionaires (90.0%) globally have fortunes between $1 million and $5 million, and you’re probably not going to find many of them with a sprawling mansion or a new Rolls Royce in the garage.

In fact, most millionaires drive a Ford.

Local Millionaires

So where will you find all of the world’s millionaires?

They are most likely to be found in big cities – places where they can use and display their wealth. These are also the places where big opportunities tend to be found, so it’s no surprise to see millionaires cluster in world-class cities like New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, or Singapore.

Regions below are sorted by the total millionaires in each city. Data comes from the Knight Frank 2017 report.

Top Cities in Asia

Rank (Asia)	City	Country	# of Millionaires
#1	Tokyo	Japan	279,800
#2	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	227,900
#3	Singapore	Singapore	217,300
#4	Beijing	China	122,100
#5	Osaka	Japan	117,700
#6	Shanghai	China	117,600
#7	Seoul	South Korea	108,100
#8	Taipei	Taiwan	76,700
#9	Mumbai	India	46,100
#10	Shenzhen	China	31,400

Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore are the undisputed millionaire population capitals in Asia, but mainland China is coming up quick from behind.

In just the last 10 years, China has upped its millionaire count by 281% to 719,400 in total – and Beijing (with 122,100 millionaires) now cracks the top five list in Asia.

Top Cities in Oceania

Rank (Oceania)	City	City	# of Millionaires
#1	Sydney	Australia	106,800
#2	Melbourne	Australia	74,800
#3	Auckland	New Zealand	25,600

Australia’s millionaire count has soared 85% over the last 10 years, thanks in part to red-hot property prices.

Top Cities in Europe

Rank (Europe)	City	Country	# of Millionaires
#1	London	UK	357,200
#2	Frankfurt	Germany	128,300
#3	Paris	France	110,900
#4	Zurich	Switzerland	109,200
#5	Geneva	Switzerland	104,300
#6	Munich	Germany	78,900
#7	Moscow	Russia	68,200
#8	Rome	Italy	64,300
#9	Amsterdam	Netherlands	42,600
#10	Brussels	Belgium	34,700

London is the millionaire capital for the world, with 357,200 of them.

Despite its relatively small size in comparison to the European heavyweights, Switzerland also has two cities in the top five: Geneva and Zurich.

Top Cities in the Middle East

Rank (Middle East)	City	Country	# of Millionaires
#1	Dubai	UAE	50,400
#2	Tel Aviv	Israel	35,200
#3	Istanbul	Turkey	27,300
#4	Doha	Qatar	25,800
#5	Abu Dhabi	UAE	17,100
#6	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	16,200
#7	Tehran	Iran	14,000
#8	Jerusalem	Israel	13,100

Not surprisingly, Dubai is the biggest destination for the ultra-rich to flock to in the Middle East.

Top Cities in Latin America

Rank (Latin America)	City	Country	# of Millionaires
#1	Mexico City	Mexico	86,700
#2	São Paulo	Brazil	64,500
#3	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	35,300
#4	Buenos Aires	Argentina	15,400
#5	Bogota	Colombia	14,900
#6	Santiago	Chile	10,800

Mexico City, and then the two big ones in Brazil (São Paulo and Rio), are where millionaires congregate in Latin America.

Top Cities in North America

Rank (North America)	City	Country	# of Millionaires
#1	New York City	USA	339,200
#2	Bay Area	USA	180,300
#3	Los Angeles	USA	173,300
#4	Toronto	Canada	109,300
#5	Miami	USA	31,600
#6	Washington D.C.	USA	31,200
#7	Vancouver	Canada	31,100

The U.S. has 4.3 million millionaires, and they are widely dispersed through the country.

The Knight Frank 2017 report lists five cities: NYC, Washington, D.C., San Francisco (incl. Bay Area), Los Angeles, and Miami – all of which, according to their calculations, have more than 30k millionaires.

Canada’s Toronto also has broken the six-digit barrier with over 100,000 millionaires. That puts the Big Smoke in pretty unique company, as only 17 cities globally can make such a claim.

Related Topics:millionaires rich london uhnwi knight frank

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Demographics

The Smallest Gender Wage Gaps in OECD Countries

Which OECD countries have the smallest gender wage gaps? We look at the 10 countries with gaps lower than the average.

Published

5 days ago

April 11, 2024

Julia Wendling

Chart showing the OECD countries with the 10 smallest gender pay gaps

The Smallest Gender Pay Gaps in OECD Countries

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Among the 38 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), several have made significant strides in addressing income inequality between men and women.

In this graphic we’ve ranked the OECD countries with the 10 smallest gender pay gaps, using the latest data from the OECD for 2022.

The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between median full-time earnings for men and women divided by the median full-time earnings of men.

Which Countries Have the Smallest Gender Pay Gaps?

Luxembourg’s gender pay gap is the lowest among OECD members at only 0.4%—well below the OECD average of 11.6%.

Rank	Country	Percentage Difference in Men's & Women's Full-time Earnings
1	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	0.4%
2	🇧🇪 Belgium	1.1%
3	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	1.4%
4	🇨🇴 Colombia	1.9%
5	🇮🇪 Ireland	2.0%
6	🇭🇷 Croatia	3.2%
7	🇮🇹 Italy	3.3%
8	🇳🇴 Norway	4.5%
9	🇩🇰 Denmark	5.8%
10	🇵🇹 Portugal	6.1%
	OECD Average	11.6%

Notably, eight of the top 10 countries with the smallest gender pay gaps are located in Europe, as labor equality laws designed to target gender differences have begun to pay off.

The two other countries that made the list were Costa Rica (1.4%) and Colombia (1.9%), which came in third and fourth place, respectively.

How Did Luxembourg (Nearly) Eliminate its Gender Wage Gap?

Luxembourg’s virtually-non-existent gender wage gap in 2020 can be traced back to its diligent efforts to prioritize equal pay. Since 2016, firms that have not complied with the Labor Code’s equal pay laws have been subjected to penalizing fines ranging from €251 to €25,000.

Higher female education rates also contribute to the diminishing pay gap, with Luxembourg tied for first in the educational attainment rankings of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index Report for 2023.

See More Graphics about Demographics and Money

While these 10 countries are well below the OECD’s average gender pay gap of 11.6%, many OECD member countries including the U.S. are significantly above the average. To see the full list of the top 10 OECD countries with the largest gender pay gaps, check out this visualization.