Money
Mapped: The World’s Billionaire Population, by Country
Visualized: The World’s Billionaire Population
The world’s billionaires—only 3,311 individuals—represent almost $11.8 trillion in wealth. The global billionaire population continued to grow in 2021, increasing by 3%. Over the same period, billionaire wealth also increased by 18%.
This map uses data from the Wealth-X Billionaire Census to visualize where the world’s billionaires live and breaks down their collective wealth.
Note on methodology: The report uses proprietary data from Wealth-X. Billionaire status is determined by assessing an individual’s total net worth, including publicly and privately held businesses and investable assets. To determine a billionaire’s location, Wealth-X used their primary business address.
Billionaires by Region
We’ll begin by zooming out to look at how various continents and world regions rank in terms of their billionaire population.
North America is home to most billionaires, worth $4.6 trillion. The U.S., unsurprisingly, accounts for the majority of this wealth, with 975 billionaires and a collective net worth of $4.45 trillion.
Rank | Region | Number of billionaires | Collective Billionaire Wealth |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | North America | 1,035 | $4.6 trillion |
#2 | Europe | 954 | $3.1 trillion |
#3 | Asia | 899 | $2.9 trillion |
#4 | Middle East | 191 | $519 billion |
#5 | Latin America and the Caribbean | 146 | $465 billion |
#6 | Africa | 46 | $104 billion |
#7 | Pacific | 40 | $89 billion |
In regional terms, Europe’s billionaire wealth is growing the fastest, up 22% year-over-year in 2021. In contrast, the year-over-year change in the Middle East was -12.5%.
Asia is inching towards Europe, holding almost a quarter of all billionaire wealth worldwide, compared to Europe’s 26.5%.
Wealth in Africa will also be important to watch in coming years. Although only home to 46 billionaires currently, the change in billionaire wealth increased by almost 17% year-over-year. Additionally, while they no longer live there, a number of the world’s billionaires hail from African countries originally.
Billionaires by Country
Now, let’s look at the ranking broken down by the top 15 countries:
Rank | Country | Number of Billionaires | Collective Billionaire Wealth |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | 🇺🇸 US | 975 | $4.45 trillion |
#2 | 🇨🇳 China | 400 | $1.45 trillion |
#3 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 176 | $602 billion |
#4 | 🇮🇳 India | 124 | $384 billion |
#5 | 🇬🇧 UK | 120 | $266 billion |
#6 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR | 114 | $287 billion |
#7 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 111 | $365 billion |
#8 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 107 | $475 billion |
#9 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 71 | $192 billion |
#10 | 🇫🇷 France | 68 | $294 billion |
#11 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 68 | $207 billion |
#12 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 60 | $131 billion |
#13 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 52 | $159 billion |
#14 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 50 | $99 billion |
#15 | 🇦🇪 UAE | 45 | $181 billion |
China is an obvious second in billionaire wealth to the United States, with famous billionaires like Zhang Yiming ($44.5 billion) of TikTok and Zhong Shanshan ($67.1 billion), whose wealth primarily comes from the pharmaceutical and beverages industries.
That said, Chinese billionaire wealth actually decreased 2% last year. It was India that came out on top in terms of growth, seeing a 19% increase in 2021.
Billionaires by City
Looking at cities, New York is home to the most billionaires—with 13 added billionaire residents last year—followed by Hong Kong.
Rank | City | Country | Number of Billionaires |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | New York City | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 138 |
#2 | Hong Kong | 🇭🇰 China | 114 |
#3 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 85 |
#4 | London | 🇬🇧 UK | 77 |
#5 | Moscow | 🇷🇺 Russia | 75 |
#6 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China | 63 |
#7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 59 |
#8 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 50 |
#9 | Shenzhen | 🇨🇳 China | 44 |
#10 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | 40 |
#11 | Dubai | 🇦🇪 UAE | 38 |
#12 | Hangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | 35 |
#13 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 34 |
#14 | Istanbul | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 33 |
#15 | Paris | 🇫🇷 France | 33 |
Billionaire Wealth in 2022
Billionaires have significant power and influence, not in the least because their collective wealth is equivalent to about 11.8% of global GDP.
In recent billionaire news, Gautam Adani’s wealth has been soaring, most recently hitting the $145 billion mark, making him the third-richest person in the world according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. However, not all billionaires are holding on to their wealth. Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, recently transferred ownership of his company to an organization that fights climate change.
Over the last decade, billionaires have been grown their fortunes considerably, with wealth increasing at a faster rate than the growth in the number of billionaires themselves. According to Wealth-X, collective billionaire net worth grew by an astonishing 90% in the last 10 years.
But in the shorter term, the situation is often more volatile. With markets reeling in 2022, Bloomberg reported that billionaires lost a record $1.4 trillion over the first half of the year. Once the year is over and the final numbers are in, it will be interesting to see how the billionaire landscape shapes up in comparison to the more long-term trend.
Wealth
Charted: What Frustrates Americans About the Tax System
A survey during peak tax filing season reveals two big complaints that Americans have with the federal tax system.
What Frustrates Americans About the Tax System
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
In this visualization, we show Pew Research’s findings on what bothers Americans the most about the tax system.
This data was collected after surveying more than 5,000 American adults between the period of March 27-April 2, 2023.
The survey was weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population. Visit Pew Research’s methodology page for more details.
Americans Want More Taxes for Some
Six in every 10 Americans feel that both corporations and the wealthy don’t pay their fair share in federal taxes.
Their sentiments are not entirely unfounded.
Very frustrated | Somewhat frustrated | Not much/ at all frustrated |
|
---|---|---|---|
🏦 Corporations don't pay a fair share | 61% | 22% | 15% |
💼 Wealthy people don't pay a fair share | 60% | 22% | 17% |
🤔 Complexity of the tax system | 53% | 32% | 13% |
💸 Amount of tax paid | 38% | 33% | 29% |
🧑🤝🧑 Poor people don't pay a fair share | 13% | 21% | 64% |
Note: No answer responses are not shown, thus percentages may not sum to 100.
A 2021 ProPublica investigation found some of the wealthiest Americans—also the wealthiest people in the world—did not pay a single penny in federal income taxes in some years.
A significant part of why this is possible is how taxes are collected depending on the source. Since much of the top 1% grow their wealth in equity and property, they are not subject to taxes until they make an actual transaction.
As this Brookings Institution article explains: most Americans make money through their wages, and wages are subject to heavier taxation than capital income. Thus, the tax share of America’s highest-income households is often lower than America’s middle-income households.
Finally, Pew Research noted that their findings were essentially unchanged since 2021.
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