These Are the Wealthiest Cities in the World

As the saying goes, “You are the company you keep.” And if you’re hoping to keep some seriously rich company, it’s time to head to these ultra-wealthy cities around the globe.

On May 7, Henley & Partners, a wealth investment firm, released its list of the World’s Wealthiest Cities. It came to its conclusion using data from the wealth intelligence firm, New World Wealth, which tracks the “global wealth migration trends between countries and cities” and the movement of more than 150,00 high-net-worth individuals, with a special focus on company founders and individuals from high-value companies in C-suite positions, and those with $30 million in “listed company holdings.” 

It then defined cities based on their “normal city limits” with several exceptions, including “The Bay Area,” which encompasses both San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, which includes the city of Los Angeles as well as Beverly Hills, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, and Malibu, Miami, which includes both Miami and Miami Beach, Nice to Èze, which includes Nice and Èze as well as Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Villefranche-sur-Mer, Athens, which includes both the city and surrounding beachfront area, Zurich, which includes the Canton of Zurich, and Geneva, which refers to the Canton of Geneva.

The company also shared its definition of “wealth,” which it refers to as an “individual’s liquid investable wealth, which only includes listed company holdings, cash holdings, and debt-free residential property holdings.” Additionally, it noted it defined “high-net-worth individuals” as those with $1 million or more in liquid, investable assets.

After creating all the parameters and crunching all the numbers, the team named New York City the wealthiest in the world, where one out of every 24 residents is a millionaire.

“The total wealth held by the Big Apple’s residents now exceeds $3 trillion — higher than the total wealth held in most major G20 countries ­— and a staggering 349,500 millionaires, 744 centi-millionaires (with investable wealth of over $100 million), and 60 billionaires live in the city,” the company shared in a press release about its findings. 

Coming in close second is another U.S. city — California’s Bay Area. “The Bay Area has enjoyed one of the world’s highest wealth growth rates, increasing its millionaire population by a whopping 82% over the past decade, and is now home to 305,700 millionaires, 675 centi-millionaires, and 68 billionaires,” the release added. 

This year’s third-place city may still be wildly wealthy, but as the company noted, its worth is falling. 

“Tokyo … which led the pack as the world’s wealthiest city a decade ago, has suffered a 5% decline in its resident high-net-worth-individual population over the past ten years, and now sits in 3rd place with just 298,300 millionaires,” it added. Still, a rather impressive stat. 

Joining these three cities on the list is Singapore in fourth place with 244,800 resident millionaires, and London in fifth with more than 227,000 millionaires to its name. Want to see how your city stacks up? Check out the full list at henleyglobal.com.