Nearly half of the 3,323 billionaires worldwide in 2023 were between 50 and 70 years old. Moreover, more than 40 percent were above 70 years, whereas around 10 percent were below 50 years. A clear majority of the world's billionaires are men.

Iceland was the country with the highest rate of millionaires worldwide in 2022, with more than ***percent of the adult population owning assets worth more than one million U.S. dollars. Luxembourg followed behind with ** percent of the population being millionaires, with Switzerland in third.

Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Top 0.1% (99.9th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLTP1246) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

In 2023, there were around 748 billionaires in the United States. This was a slight increase from the previous year's total of 704, and a significant increase from the 66 billionaires in 1990.

In 2016, there were approximately **** thousand millionaires in Pakistan. The number of individuals owning one million U.S. dollars or more in Pakistan is expected to rise to **** thousand by 2026. HNWI forecast in Pakistan Individuals with investible assets of at least one million U.S. dollars in current exchange rate terms are considered high net worth. The number of high-net-worth individuals in Pakistan is expected to rise overall between 2022 and 2028, settling at just under ***** thousand individuals. Countries with the highest millionaire rate In 2021, Switzerland had the highest rate of millionaires in the world, with **** percent of the adult population owning assets worth more than one million U.S. dollars. Luxembourg came in second, with **** percent of the population being millionaires, and Iceland came in third. Furthermore, over ** million people in the United States were among the world's top one percent of ultra-high net-worth individuals in 2021. China came second, with over **** million top one percent wealth holders worldwide.

In 2023, there were estimated to be approximately 3,061 dollar millionaires among the adult population of the United Kingdom (UK), compared to 2,556 in the previous year.

In 2021, there were around 70 thousand millionaires living in Malaysia. This figure is projected to increase to more than 130 thousand in five years’ time. Should the Malaysian economy continue its less than robust growth, however, this figure might have to be revised.

A positive outlook for the wealthy in Malaysia
2020 was not a good year for both the high-net worth individuals and ultra-high net worth individuals (UNHWI) in Malaysia. Compared to 2019, most were optimistic that the global economy in that year was more conducive to preserving and growing their clients' wealth as a majority of private bankers and wealth advisers in Malaysia reported increases in client wealth in that year. However, the HNWIs and UNHWIs live a life far removed from the average Malaysian. In 2019, only 3.9 percent of adults in Malaysia have wealth exceeding 100 thousand U.S. dollars. By comparison, this figure was 49.4 percent in neighboring Singapore.

Excesses of the ultra-rich
In the past year, the Malaysian public has been exposed to the excesses of the rich and powerful through the 1MDB scandal. This saw the then Prime Minister Najib Razak being accused of embezzling from state funds. The media widely publicized the seizure of luxury handbags belonging to Najib’s wife, each of which costs was more than the average Malaysian’s monthly salary. The public’s distaste for Najib’s extravagant lifestyle was so apparent that when his election rival, Mahathir Mohd, was photographed wearing four-dollar sandals, his picture went viral on social media.

In the first quarter of 2024, almost two-thirds percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10 percent of earners. In comparison, the lowest 50 percent of earners only owned 2.5 percent of the total wealth. Income inequality in the U.S. Despite the idea that the United States is a country where hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps will inevitably lead to success, this is often not the case. In 2023, 7.4 percent of U.S. households had an annual income under 15,000 U.S. dollars. With such a small percentage of people in the United States owning such a vast majority of the country’s wealth, the gap between the rich and poor in America remains stark. The top one percent The United States follows closely behind China as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Elon Musk alone held around 219 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Over the past 50 years, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio has exploded, causing the gap between rich and poor to grow, with some economists theorizing that this gap is the largest it has been since right before the Great Depression.

In Europe, the variation in average amounts of financial wealth per adult varied considerably as of 2022, from approximately ******* U.S. dollars in Switzerland to roughly ***** U.S. dollars in Azerbaijan. In Europe, the overall average financial wealth per adult as of 2022 was ****** U.S. dollars. In terms of private wealth, Europe held the second highest value in the world, after North America. What is financial wealth? Financial wealth, also known as financial assets or liquid assets can include wealth that an individual has in the forms of cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and bank deposits. In addition to financial wealth, wealth can also be measured in other assets, called non-financial wealth. This includes physical assets, such as real estate, land, vehicles, jewelry, and art, just to name a few. Where do most wealthy individuals live? Individuals with a net worth over *********** U.S. dollars are called high-net worth individuals (HNWI). The United States was the home country to the highest number of HNWIs in 2021. China followed, although their number of HNWIs did not even reach ********* of the number in the United States. In Europe, Switzerland is the country with the highest average financial wealth per adult, but with its small population size, the number of HNWIs does not come near the numbers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy – the European countries with the highest number of HNWIs. Considering Switzerland’s small population size, however, it is the country in the world with the highest proportion of millionaires.

In 2023, roughly 1.49 billion adults worldwide had a net worth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars. By comparison, 58 million adults had a net worth of more than one million U.S. dollars in the same year. Wealth distribution The distribution of wealth is an indicator of economic inequality. The United Nations says that wealth includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. Wealth is not synonymous with income, however, because having a large income can be depleted if one has significant expenses. In 2023, nearly 1,700 billionaires had a total wealth between one to two billion U.S. dollars. Wealth worldwide China had the highest number of billionaires in 2023, with the United States following behind. That same year, New York had the most billionaires worldwide.

In 2023, by far the highest number of individuals with net assets of at least ** million U.S. dollars worldwide were residing in North America, reaching over ******* people. Asia recorded the second highest number of UHNWIs in the world with over ******* individuals.A small share owns vast sums of wealthThe vast majority of global wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people. Only *** percent of the global population owns assets worth more than *** million U.S. dollars. The richest people in the world are Elon Mask, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault. When it comes to women, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers led the ranking of the most affluent women worldwide. The wealth of over ** percent of UHNWIs was self-made. Where UHNWIs live and where they leave Unsurprisingly, as North America is the world region with the highest number of UHNWIs, the United States is the country with the highest UHNWI count. However, Hong Kong, special administrative (SAR) region in China, is the city with the highest number of UHNWIs. Nevertheless, China was the country that recorded the highest outflux of UHNWIs in 2022.

Over ** million Russians aged 20 years and above, or approximately ** percent of the total adult population of the country, had wealth under 10,000 U.S. dollars in 2022. To compare, on average around the globe, the share of residents belonging to this wealth range was measured at **** percent in the same year. Economic inequality in Russia The latest available data by the World Bank recorded Russia’s Gini index, used as a measurement of income or wealth inequality, at **. The organization classified Russia as an upper-middle-income economy. Over ** percent of Russians considered themselves belonging to the middle class in 2020. HNWIs in Russia Approximately *** percent of Russian adults, or ******* residents, owned over *********** U.S. dollars, or were referred to as high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). In 2021, the total wealth of the adult population in the country reached nearly *** trillion U.S. dollars. A significant portion of it belonged to roughly ***** ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) whose net worth exceeded ** billion U.S. dollars.

In 2016, there were five thousand millionaires in Sri Lanka. This figure was estimated to reach 13 thousand by 2026. In comparison, the country had 80 ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI) and 10 centa-millionaires in that year. In 2018, there were about 6.07 million millionaires, also called high net worth individuals (HNWI), in the Asia Pacific region.

Richest people in Sri Lanka

One of Sri Lankan’s richest people is Dhammika Pereras, a businessman who is owning about 23 companies in various sectors and whose estimated fortune amounts to 550 million U.S. dollars. He is followed by Sohli and Rusi captain, a family that is the largest shareholder of John Keells Holdings and Chemical Industries Colombo with a fortune of around 250 million U.S. dollars.

Sri Lanka

The population in Sri Lanka amounted to approximately 21.4 million in 2017. Sri Lanka’s economy has been developing in the past years, with a GDP growing at 3.11 percent in 2017. Sri Lanka’s largest sector in terms of GDP contribution is the services sector. About 45.77 percent of the employees were active in the services sector in 2018. The government was able to reduce the poverty level in the past years. Nevertheless, the country’s GDP per capita is still only relatively moderate compared to other Asia Pacific countries.

60 percent of Australians were in the wealth range between 100,000 and one million U.S. dollars in 2020. Just 9.4 percent of Australian adults had wealth of over one million U.S. dollars, which was slightly less than the share of people who had under 10,000 U.S. dollars in wealth.

Wealth distribution in the Asia-Pacific

In 2020, China had the highest number of millionaires, followed by Japan and Australia. The number of millionaires in Australia was forecasted to increase from 1.8 million to three million by 2025. According to a source, among the Asia-Pacific countries, Australia ranked second in the share of wealth per adult. The source had revealed the wealth per adult in Australia was more than 483 thousand U.S. dollars in 2020.

LGBTQ community of Australia

In 2020, a survey of working adults in Australia revealed that LGBTQ adults were employed in public services and the law enforcement across the country. On the one hand, more than 38 percent of LGBTQ individuals had a role as as a team member, above 12 percent of respondents answered that they were either team leader or supervisor.