One out of every 24 New York City residents is now a millionaire

By Alice Kantor and Cecile Vannucci

For all the talk of a big-money exodus from New York, the city’s residents still have more wealth — in excess of $3 trillion — than those of any other metro in the world.

New York has almost 350,000 millionaires, which is the most of any city and up 48 per cent from a decade ago, according to a global ranking of the wealthiest cities by Henley & Partners, an immigration consultancy. That means about one in every 24 of its 8.26 million residents has a seven-figure net worth, compared with about one in 36 in 2013. New York still has a large share of the ultra-rich, too: the report found that it has 60 billionaires and 744 people with investable wealth of more than $100 million.

The findings illustrate the scope of New York’s wealth at a time when some of the city’s richest people are fretting a power shift to Florida as the finance industry sets up a Wall Street South. Miami ranked 33rd among the cities with the most millionaires, up 78 per cent over the past 10 years.

The Bay Area came in second overall, with 305,700 people with a seven-figure net worth living in the region that includes San Jose, San Francisco and Palo Alto. Tokyo came in third with 298,300, a figure that slid 5% over the past decade. Singapore, No. 4, has become a top destination for migrating millionaires with about 3,400 high net-worth individuals moving there in 2023 alone.

List of cities with most millionaires.

The boom in financial markets in the past few years has driven growth in the world’s richest cities, according to Juerg Steffen, Henley & Partners’ chief executive officer. Global equities surged 20 per cent in 2023 and are up almost 7 per cent this year.

However, some global cities have seen their fortunes reverse. London lost 10 per cent of its millionaire population in the past decade, which included the UK’s decision to exit the European Union. Hong Kong saw a 4 per cent decline in its millionaire ranks as wealthy expats left for Singapore following China’s pandemic-era crackdown.

Some cities on the rise include China’s Shenzhen, where the number of millionaires has surged 140 per cent over the past decade. Bengaluru, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Scottsdale, Arizona in the US, have also seen their millionaire population more than double in the past 10 years.

Dubai is the richest city in the Middle East, ranking No. 21 globally. Based on wealth per capita, Monaco ranks No. 1 in the world, with more than 40 per cent of its residents being millionaires. New York City comes second.