Money

Where the World’s Ultra Rich Population Lives

Published

6 years ago

April 11, 2018

Jeff Desjardins

Where the World's Ultra Rich Population Lives

Where the World’s Ultra Rich Population Lives

We’ve recently broken down data on the global population of millionaires by city, and even the residences of the world’s top 50 billionaires.

But still, there’s something extremely interesting about dissecting the lifestyles of the ultra rich – particularly in looking at where they live, and also how they tend to migrate when local conditions are not conducive to wealth-building or the safety of their fortunes and families.

Ultra Rich: By Region

Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it breaks down the population of ultra high net worth individuals that have personal wealth levels exceeding the $500 million mark. It uses information from the 2018 edition of the Knight Frank Wealth Report.

First, we’ll look at these totals on a regional level:

Region	Population (>$500M wealth)	% of Global Pop
North America	2,100	31.8%
Asia	1,860	28.1%
Europe	1,680	25.4%
Middle East	280	4.2%
Latin America & Caribbean	280	4.2%
Russia & CIS	220	3.3%
Africa	120	1.8%
Australasia	70	1.1%
	6,610	100.0%

As you can see, the vast amount of half-billionaires are located in North America (31.8%), Asia (28.1%), and Europe (25.4%). That means that fewer than 15% of these ultra rich live in the Middle East, Australasia, Russia & CIS, Latin America, and Africa combined.

Ultra Rich: By Country

Now, we’ll look at the 14 countries that have greater than 100 ultra rich people (>$500 million) as residents:

Rank	Country	Region	Population (>$500M wealth)
#1	United States	North America	1,830
#2	China (Mainland)	Asia	490
#3	Germany	Europe	430
#4	Japan	Asia	390
#5	Hong Kong	Asia	320
#6	Canada	North America	270
#7	Switzerland	Europe	250
#8	France	Europe	230
#9	Russia & CIS	Russia & CIS	220
#10	United Kingdom	Europe	220
#11	India	Asia	200
#12	Italy	Europe	160
#13	Brazil	Latin America	130
#14	Saudi Arabia	Middle East	120

Note: this list excludes second-home owners.

Sitting at the top of the list is the United States with 1,830 people that hold fortunes larger than $500 million. That’s equal to roughly 28% of the global half-billionaire population.

Following the U.S. is China, which counts 810 people as having a wealth over $500 million. These numbers are broken down into Mainland China and Hong Kong on the graph and table, because they were tallied using different sources.

Canada tallies surprisingly high here – the country only ranks #10 globally based on its number of (billionaires), but ranks #6 in terms of half-billionaires with 270 in total.

Lastly, it should be noted that just missing the cut-off on the above list were Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore, three Asian countries that tied with 100 half-billionaires each.

Related Topics:money wealth millionaires billionaires people uhnwi knight frank ultra rich

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Money

How Debt-to-GDP Ratios Have Changed Since 2000

See how much the debt-to-GDP ratios of advanced economies have grown (or shrank) since the year 2000.

Published

15 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Marcus Lu

How Debt-to-GDP Ratios Have Changed Since 2000

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.

Government debt levels have grown in most parts of the world since the 2008 financial crisis, and even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To gain perspective on this long-term trend, we’ve visualized the debt-to-GDP ratios of advanced economies, as of 2000 and 2024 (estimated). All figures were sourced from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook.

Data and Highlights

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below. “Government gross debt” consists of all liabilities that require payment(s) of interest and/or principal in the future.

Country	2000 (%)	2024 (%)	Change (pp)
🇯🇵 Japan	135.6	251.9	+116.3
🇸🇬 Singapore	82.3	168.3	+86.0
🇺🇸 United States	55.6	126.9	+71.3
🇬🇧 United Kingdom	36.6	105.9	+69.3
🇬🇷 Greece	104.9	160.2	+55.3
🇫🇷 France	58.9	110.5	+51.6
🇵🇹 Portugal	54.2	104.0	+49.8
🇪🇸 Spain	57.8	104.7	+46.9
🇸🇮 Slovenia	25.9	66.5	+40.6
🇫🇮 Finland	42.4	76.5	+34.1
🇭🇷 Croatia	35.4	61.8	+26.4
🇨🇦 Canada	80.4	103.3	+22.9
🇨🇾 Cyprus	56.0	70.9	+14.9
🇦🇹 Austria	65.7	74.0	+8.3
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic	50.5	56.5	+6.0
🇩🇪 Germany	59.3	64.0	+4.7
🇧🇪 Belgium	109.6	106.8	-2.8
🇮🇱 Israel	77.4	56.8	-20.6
🇮🇸 Iceland	75.8	54.6	-21.2

The debt-to-GDP ratio indicates how much a country owes compared to the size of its economy, reflecting its ability to manage and repay debts. Percentage point (pp) changes shown above indicate the increase or decrease of these ratios.

Countries with the Biggest Increases

Japan (+116 pp), Singapore (+86 pp), and the U.S. (+71 pp) have grown their debt as a percentage of GDP the most since the year 2000.

All three of these countries have stable, well-developed economies, so it’s unlikely that any of them will default on their growing debts. With that said, higher government debt leads to increased interest payments, which in turn can diminish available funds for future government budgets.

This is a rising issue in the U.S., where annual interest payments on the national debt have surpassed $1 trillion for the first time ever.

Only 3 Countries Saw Declines

Among this list of advanced economies, Belgium (-2.8 pp), Iceland (-21.2 pp), and Israel (-20.6 pp) were the only countries that decreased their debt-to-GDP ratio since the year 2000.

According to Fitch Ratings, Iceland’s debt ratio has decreased due to strong GDP growth and the use of its cash deposits to pay down upcoming maturities.