New York City Has the World's Largest Billionaire Population

Press release from the issuing company

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

There are 103 billionaires based in New York City, making it the number one city in the world in terms of the size of its billionaire population, but cities in Asia claimed eight spots on the top 20 billionaire cities list in theWealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014.

The report – which presents a global overview of the billionaire segment – shows that 34% of the world's 2,325 billionaires are based in these top 20 cities. Only New York and Los Angeles made it onto the list despite the United States being the country with the most number of billionaires (571) and total billionaire wealth (US$2.26 trillion) in the world. 

Eight of the top 20 billionaire cities are in Asia, a further indication that the region is at the beginning of a new cycle in wealth creation. Leading the charge is Hong Kong, which is home to 82 billionaires, Beijing (37 billionaires) and Singapore (32 billionaires). Billionaires based in the eight Asian cities on the list collectively hold US$821 billion in wealth – equivalent to 11% of total global billionaire wealth.

Other cities on the top 20 billionaire cities list include Sao Paulo (36 billionaires), which is ranked sixth; Dubai (34 billionaires), ranked eighth; and Geneva (23 billionaires), in 15th spot.

Below are the top 5 billionaire cities:

Rank

City

Country/Territory

Number of 
Billionaires

1

New York

United States

103

2

Moscow

Russia

85

3

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

82

4

London

United Kingdom

72

5

Beijing

China

37 

The Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014 shows that 155 new billionaires were minted this year, pushing the global population to a record 2,325 – a 7% rise from 2013.

The combined wealth of the world's billionaires increased by 12% to US$7.3 trillion, which is higher than the combined market capitalisation of all the companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

For the full list, go to http://www.wealthx.com/articles/2014/top-20-billionaire-cities/