Most of the uber-wealthy continue to live in the US, with China placing a distant second. The UK, however, shows surprising strength in the newly updated annual rankings. 

The numbers of the ultra-high net worth, or those with more than $30 million, is a particularly rarified one. 

The total population was 626,619 individuals last year, according to a visualization published by digital publisher Visual Capitalist. In other words, you can fit the world’s entire population of them into about six stadiums roughly equivalent to Barcelona FC’s Camp Nou in size.

The 1 Percent Club in Redux

The number of them did grow a strong 4.2 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, much of it likely due to the unexpected AI-fueled rebound in equities at the tip end of it. Still, it remains a very small and selective slice of the world’s 1 percent club, something that finews.asia reported on separately last week.

Although the information was gleaned from the recently published Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024, the infographic reads like a clear and easily grasped potential prospecting map for your average international banker.

Half the World’s Assets

The US continues to hold the top rank worldwide, with slightly more than 225,000 individuals or one-third of the wealthiest individuals being based there. They are followed by China, which comes in at just under 99,000. 

The two countries together make up half of the top bracket globally but for the private banking industry, both can end up being a misfortune in disguise if not approached with a full toolbox of regulatory licenses and a complete business franchise.

The European Miss

The wealth massed at the top end seems to indirectly infer the importance of brute economic size when it comes to building the necessary heft in individual assets, given the two countries are the world’s largest and second-largest economies.

But the numbers, when looked at in isolation, seemingly underplay Europe’s hand, something the graphic remediates.

France Just Ahead

The continent’s largest economies, taken together, are roughly equivalent to China in size, but it might be surprising to some that the faint roots of Gaullist dirigisme in France have managed to remain just ahead of the UK.

That is because, among the large economies, the UK posted a strong 3.7 percent growth rate, besting France’s very parked-or-in-neutral rate of 0.2 percent and European leader Germany’s tepid 1.1 percent.

Love for Equity

It also seems to belie the prevailing conventional wisdom that Brexit is a gift that doesn’t seem to stop taking away even though the future might eventually reveal that much of was due to a general Anglo-Saxon proclivity to equities.

Another European eye-opener is perhaps the relatively low numbers posted by the Latin contingent, which was led by Italy (15,952), followed by Spain (10,149) and Portugal (800).


The Canadian Question

But the map holds out other international revelations for the cold-calling UHNW banker, even though they are more than likely a dying breed. Canada has a surprisingly large population of 27,928, placing it fourth in the world with growth of 2 percent, but hindsight – and history  – might deem that the market should be approached at least as cautiously as the US.

Switzerland continues to place a respectable tenth worldwide at 14,734, while its growth rate of 5.2 percent leads the rest of Europe by a significant margin. Worldwide, the Swiss place fifth when it comes to the pace of growth, just behind Turkey, the US, India, and South Korea.

The Swiss Model

In terms of size, it places tenth. The two factors, taken together, seem to vouch for a strategy that would emphasize a strong domestic prong for most, if not all, of the country’s international private banks and wealth managers.

Latin America turned out to be a big nada last year, with the number of UHNWs drawing a complete blank. According to Visual Capitalist, the numbers showed a significant 3.6 percent contraction, the only region to shrink in 2023. Africa, by contrast, managed to report a healthy contingent of 835 based in South Africa, something that seems to point to the average respectable international private bank having at least an offshore team of 5-10 staff managing them.

Asia in Detail

A closer look at Asia also revealed other interesting facts. Japan placed a very distant second regionally (21,710), and its growth rate was a practically there-but-not-there 0.3 percent. Given that, it will be a matter of curiosity to see if things improve next year given the Nikkei Index’s recent all-time high.

Hong Kong also made for a particularly poor showing, with only 5,957 individuals in the 7.5 million large city cutting it. As finews.asia reported last week, it seems somewhat ironic given that membership in the 1 percent club in the city is three times higher than it is on the mainland.

India’s Still-Modest Totals

Australia came in second with 15,347 UHNWIs and a growth pace of 2.9 percent. India posted the most gains in Asia Pacific at 6.1 percent, although the total size of its set of uber-wealthy remains relatively modest at 13,263. South Korea, however, was not far behind, with a 5.6 percent growth rate and a population of 7,310.

Chip-foundry cum island Taiwan had 7,640 UHNWIs, a number that was down 0.3 percent year-on-year. Still, it continued to punch well above its weight in terms of size and heft.

Undercounting the Middle East

There are some important caveats. As Visual Capitalist indicates, some important hot spots were not included in the graphic, including those from Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia. 

As finews.asia has been reporting, much of the world’s wealth, at least anecdotally, seems to be gravitating towards the Middle East, which may be prompting a significant undercount overall.

The Big Tech Quandary

Something else also comes through the current set of numbers. The importance of tech in creating wealth around the world, at least in terms of equity. 

Given that the trend has continued unabated since the end of last year, it may be another very good year for the moneyed set – and the world might need another stadium or two to hold them at this time in 2025.