Most Multimillionaires Live in These 10 Countries

Wealth worldwide is unevenly distributed and it’s accumulating more and more in Asia. Compared to the previous year, the number of those who own $5 million dollars or more has increased significantly in the past year. This is shown by a report for the year 2017 by the London real estate company Knight Frank. About one in three of these multimillionaires lives in the USA.

There, the total number of multimillionaires is 853,000. In second place is China with 207,000 multimillionaires, followed by Japan with 200,000. Interestingly, the multimillionaire population grew about 26% in Brazil, Russia, and Taiwan.

In only five out of 49 countries in the dataset, has the number of multimillionaires has fallen. All are in veritable crises, such as in Turkey under Erdogan. In Nigeria, rebel attacks reduced oil production and the country went through a recession.

In Egypt, the value of the pound fell after the exchange rate had been liberalized under pressure from the IMF. As the only Western country, the United Kingdom lost multimillionaires under the looming shadow of Brexit uncertainty. What remains the same, however, is that most multimillionaires live these 10 countries. Check it out.

10. Italy

In Italy in 2017 around 53,670 multimillionaires lived. The richest among them (a billionaire in fact) with $20,8 billion dollars is Giovanni Ferrero, the son of Michele Ferrero, leader of Nutella, Tic-Tac, and Co.

9. South Korea

In South Korea, around 55,670 multimillionaires lived in 2017 – 23% more than in the previous year. The richest South Korean with $16.4 billion dollars is Lee Kun-hee, the former Samsung boss. Lee is considered seriously ill after a heart attack.

8. Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, 67,700 multimillionaires lived in 2017 – 19% more than in the previous year. The richest man with $31,4 billion dollars is the trading entrepreneur and investor Li Ka-shing.

7. Canada

Canada ranks seventh with 76,720 multimillionaires – 16% more than in the previous year. The richest Canadian with $27.5 billion is David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters.

6. Great Britain

There were approximately 97,530 multimillionaires in the United Kingdom last year – 2% fewer than in the previous year. The richest are the members of the Hinduja family. They control the Hinduja Group, an Indian conglomerate with more than 70,000 employees worldwide.

5. France

In France, 104,090 multimillionaires lived in 2017 – 18% more than in the previous year. The richest Frenchman Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury group LVMH is worth $70 billion dollars. He is also considered the richest man in Europe.

4. Germany

Germany was 4th in the ranking of the countries with the most multimillionaires. 136,990 of them live in this Federal Republic – 13% more than in the previous year. The richest Germans with about $25.3 billion dollars are heirs to the Aldi retail fortune Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht Jr.

3. Japan

Japan ranks third in the ranking with 199,980 multimillionaires. Richest Japanese is Masayoshi Son with 23,4 billion dollars, CEO of Softbank Capital.

2. China

China ranks second among the countries with the most multimillionaires: 207,350 – 13% more than in the previous year. The richest Chinese with 30,6 billion dollars is Ma Huateng also known as Pony Ma. He leads the internet company Tencent.

1. United States

The most multimillionaires lived in the United States in 2017: 852,700. The richest among them is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with more than $144 billion dollars.

Americans Are the Richest

According to Forbes, a fortune of $2 billion dollars is needed to be among the 400 richest Americans. That’s 18% more than the previous year (2016). US President Donald Trump is also a member of this elite. With an estimated 3.1 billion in assets, he is ranked 248.

There is no woman in the top ten. According to Forbes, the richest American woman is the Walmart heiress Alice Walton, with a fortune of  $44.9 billion dollars.

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