Mercer Island lies just outside Seattle and is known for its wealth.
According to UBS, the United States leads the world with nearly 23.8 million millionaires in 2024. Interestingly, last year alone saw the creation of about 379,000 new millionaires in the country. That’s over a thousand every day! Meanwhile, Mainland China follows with 6.3 million millionaires, and Turkey had the fastest growth rate, seeing an 8.4% increase.
The rise in U.S. millionaires coincided with a strong performance on Wall Street and a stable U.S. dollar. However, the first half of 2025 has been turbulent. Factors like Trump’s trade policies and emerging recession fears have created market uncertainties.
UBS economist James Mazeau shared that it’s unclear if U.S. household wealth will slow this year. A weaker dollar may actually benefit non-dollar countries. Despite the challenges, Mazeau notes that American real estate has held strong, and stock markets might also see slight gains by the year’s end.
He suggested that while the growth rate might dip compared to last year, it doesn’t mean wealth creation will turn negative. "The engines of growth are far from dead in the United States," he said.
Interestingly, while 40% of the world’s millionaires live in the U.S., countries like Luxembourg and Switzerland exhibit a higher concentration of wealth. In those places, more than one in seven adults possesses at least a million dollars.
Globally, the millionaire count rose by over 684,000, reaching around 60 million, largely due to increasing property values. However, this growth wasn’t uniform; Japan, for example, lost about 33,000 millionaires due to its declining population.
The billionaire count saw a modest increase to 2,891, yet there was significant turnover. Notably, billionaires lost wealth in 15 of the 56 markets analyzed by UBS, with notable declines in the Netherlands and Uruguay. Contrarily, countries like Singapore, Qatar, Greece, and Poland experienced substantial gains.
The wealthiest individuals certainly hold a significant share of the global wealth. UBS estimates approximately 60 million people control around $226 trillion, nearly half of all global wealth. Among these, 2,860 billionaires own $15.7 trillion combined. The top 15 centibillionaires alone are worth a staggering $2.4 trillion.
Mazeau pointed out that wealth inequality persists even among billionaires. This concentration of wealth often stems from the booming tech sector and its entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, there’s limited data on those worth between $50 million and $1 billion, skewing perceptions of wealth distribution.
It’s important to note that wealth growth among middle and lower brackets is often underestimated. Since 2000, the number of "everyday millionaires," those with $1 to $5 million, has more than quadrupled to about 52 million. In fact, they collectively hold more wealth than all billionaires combined.
"This wealth growth is significant and frequently overlooked," Mazeau emphasized.
For more detailed insights, you can check out UBS.
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