Connect with us

Money

Mapping the World’s Wealthiest Cities

Published

on

Mapping the Wealthiest Cities in the World

The Top 15 Cities Globally Hold $24 Trillion in Wealth

That’s about 11% of the world’s total private wealth

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

Which cities are the world’s economic powerhouses, and what portion of global wealth is located in these key urban centers?

Today’s chart pulls information from the latest report from market research firm New World Wealth, which we previously cited weeks ago when we visualized the shift in global wealth over the last decade.

The World’s Wealthiest Cities

The data shown in this chart represents the total amount of private wealth held by all the individuals living in each of these cities.

Figures here include all assets (property, cash, equities, business interests) less any liabilities. Meanwhile, government funds are excluded from these figures.

RankCityTotal Wealth
#1New York City$3.0 trillion
#2London$2.7 trillion
#3Tokyo$2.5 trillion
#4San Francisco Bay Area$2.3 trillion
#5Beijing$2.2 trillion
#6Shanghai$2.0 trillion
#7Los Angeles$1.4 trillion
#8Hong Kong$1.3 trillion
#9Sydney$1.0 trillion
#10Singapore$1.0 trillion
#11Chicago$988 billion
#12Mumbai$950 billion
#13Toronto$944 billion
#14Frankfurt$912 billion
#15Paris$860 billion

New World Wealth also mentions that there were eight cities that just missed out on the top 15: Houston, Geneva, Osaka, Seoul, Shenzhen, Melbourne, Zurich and Dallas.

It should also be made clear that wealth is a different measure than Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is another common metric used to gauge economic power. That said, we do have a list of U.S. cities by GDP size if you’d like to explore the GDP measure on a city level, as well.

Wealth Past and Present

According to the same report, over last 10 years, the cities with the fastest growing rates of wealth were San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Sydney.

Meanwhile, Mumbai is expected to be the city that will see the highest rate of growth over the next decade.

Interestingly, the report also singles out two major Chinese cities as ones to watch:

Shenzhen: With $770 billion in wealth, this city just misses the Top 15 list. It’s considered the high tech capital of China and is home to the Shenzhen stock exchange (2nd largest in China, and 8th largest in the world). Major smartphone manufacturer Huawei is also based in the city.

Hangzhou: With $425 billion in wealth, this city doesn’t quite measure up to others on the list at first glance. However, it’s actually only a 45 minute train ride away from Shanghai ($2.0 trillion) – and people that work in Shanghai often have homes here as it is considered more scenic. Hangzhou is the fastest growing major city in China (in terms of wealth growth), and ecommerce giant Alibaba notably calls the city its home, as well.

Click for Comments

Money

Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This graphic illustrates the amount of U.S. currency in circulation globally, by denomination, based on data from the Federal Reserve.

Published

on

Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

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.

Have you ever wondered how much U.S. currency is in circulation?

Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve submits a print order for U.S. currency to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP will then print billions of notes in various denominations, from $1 bills to $100 bills.

In this graphic, we’ve used the latest Federal Reserve data to visualize the approximate number of bills for each denomination globally, as of Dec. 31, 2022.

Breakdown of U.S. Currency in Circulation

The following table lists all of the data we used to create the visualization above. Note that value figures were rounded for simplicity.

Type of BillNumber of notes
in circulation (billions)
Value ($B)
$114.3$14B
$21.5$3B
$53.5$18B
$102.3$23B
$2011.5$230B
$502.5$125B
$10018.5$1,850B
$500-10,000*0.0004n/a

*$500-10,000 bills are listed as a range, and a total circulation of 0.0004 billion. Not included in graphic.

From these numbers, we can see that $100 bills are the most common bill in circulation, even ahead of $1 bills.

One reason for this is $100 bills have a longer lifespan than smaller denominations, due to people using $100 bills less often for transactions. Some businesses may also decline $100 bills as payment.

Based on 2018 estimates from the Federal Reserve, a $100 bill has a lifespan of over 20 years, which is significantly higher than $1 bills (7 years) and $5 bills (5 years).

If you’re interested in more visualizations on the U.S. dollar, consider this animated chart which shows how the dollar overtook the British pound as the world’s most prominent reserve currency.

Continue Reading
Visualizing Asia's Water Dilemma

Subscribe

Popular