Looking at the average billionaire's wealth worldwide by asset allocation, a clear majority of the wealth among male billionaires was made up of public holdings. Banking and financing is the industry to which the highest share of male billionaires devote most of their time.

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.

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, 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 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.

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.

The statistic shows the number of millionaires in mainland China from 2015 to 2024, as estimated by a research institute in China. According to the report, there were 4.14 million millionaires owning assets worth over six million yuan - roughly equivalent to one million U.S. dollars - and 1,68 million millionaires with personal wealth of over ten million yuan in mainland China in 2024.

In the first quarter of 2025, 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 was the country with the most billionaires in the world in 2025. Elon Musk, with a net worth of 342 billion U.S. dollars, was among the richest people in the United States in 2025. 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.

As of November 2022, a combined value of **** trillion U.S. dollars was held by billionaires living in the United States. While U.S. billionaire wealth has seen a drop over the last year, it is still more than *** times the amount it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of January 2025, Zhang Yiming topped the list of the richest people in China with a net worth of 60 billion U.S. dollars. Zhong Shanshan, founder of the beverage company Nongfu Spring, and Ma Huateng, founder of the IT giant Tencent, came in second and third respectively, while Ma Yun, founder of the IT giant Alibaba, fell back to the tenth place. Ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in China Net worth refers to the amount of value by which an individual’s assets exceed their liabilities. It is usually cited to demonstrate the economic position of a person. Following China’s extensive economic development over the past two decades, the number of wealthy people had been rapidly growing as well. According to Hurun Research Institute, Greater China was the region with the second largest number of billionaires worldwide as of 2025, with a total number of 870 billionaires. As of February 2025, the number of millionaires had amounted to approximately 19,000 people in Beijing alone. Unsurprisingly, the majority of high-net worth individuals lives in one of the four first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Chinese billionaire's sources of wealth Chinese millionaires have accumulated their wealth primarily as private entrepreneurs. Most of the people listed among the 20 wealthiest Chinese in 2024 had owned their own companies. Zhang Yiming, who topped the list of richest people in China in 2025, has made his fortune as founder of BytaDance and Douyin, the social media platform internationally known as TikTok.

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.

Dieter Schwarz, according to Forbes, was the wealthiest person in Germany as of 2025, with assets amounting to around 38.5 billion U.S. dollars. Dieter Schwarz is the owner of the Schwarz Gruppe, which owns both the supermarket chains Kaufland and Lidl. Klaus-Michael Kühne follows in second place. Among other things, he is the majority owner of the logistics company Kühne + Nagel International AG. Who are the richest people in Germany? Dieter Schwarz is the owner of the Schwarz Gruppe, which owns both the supermarket chains Kaufland and Lidl. In 2023, the Schwarz Gruppe recorded around 56.55 million euros in revenue. Karl Albrecht Jr. is the owner of the popular discount grocery store chain Aldi Süd. As of 2023, there were over 2,000 Aldi Süd stores in Germany. This, of course, does not include all the stores in other countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia, just to name a few. German salaries Germany currently has the highest GDP in Europe. However, this does not mean that everyone in Germany is a billionaire. The average salary is, in fact, around 48,380 euros. Although the trend is that German salaries have been on the rise since 2000, there has been a dip since 2019. This is probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflation of 2022.

The millionaire population in Singapore stood at around ******* in 2021 and is projected to increase to about ******* in 2026. This estimated growth in the millionaire population reflects the trend of increasing household wealth in Singapore, which grew by more than 146 percent since 2000. Millionaire’s playground In 2022, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Singapore as the world’s most expensive city, alongside Hong Kong and Paris. The high cost of living in Singapore is in large part due to the extremely high cost of owning a car, as well as high property and food prices. With the tenth-highest average wealth per adult in the world, and relatively low financial inequality, it seems that the residents of Singapore are able to afford life in the city with the third most expensive beer prices in the world. Declining wealth in old age The reality, however, is far less glamorous. While the median wealth per adult increased in 2019 from 2018, it was still the second-lowest value in the past five years. Many Singaporeans are feeling the pinch, especially the most vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, who make up the majority of the workforce in jobs such as cleaning. Worryingly, many Singaporeans are also not financially prepared for retirement. This could lead to increasing inequality in the future, with many people unable to afford the lifestyle that they are accustomed to.

In 2021, there were around ** thousand millionaires living in Malaysia. This figure is projected to increase to more than *** 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 *** percent of adults in Malaysia have wealth exceeding 100 thousand U.S. dollars. By comparison, this figure was **** 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 **** 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.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2020, the savings of millionaires with assets of **** billion South Korean won or more amounted to around *** million South Korean won per year. The average annual savings of South Korean millionaires was around ** million South Korean won.

******************************************************** — was the wealthiest person in Poland, with assets of over ***** billion zloty in 2025. Business operations in Poland  In Poland, business activity can be conducted in the form of various legal forms. There are ***** primary forms: individual business activity (self-employment), a civil partnership, and a commercial company divided into capital and partnerships. Foreigners may open a branch or a representative office in Poland. In 2021, the ownership of foreign entities in Poland was confirmed by *** thousand enterprises. However, the number of foreign entities operating amounted to over **** thousand. The number of newly-established enterprises in Poland is growing year by year. At the end of 2021, there were over **** million active enterprises. In terms of value, the largest company in Poland in 2023 was Dino Polska - the retail chain.The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Poland disrupted the development of enterprises in 2020. In the last quarter of this year, *** business entities declared bankruptcy, most of which operated in the commercial and industrial sectors.    Remuneration in Poland  In 2024, the minimum wage in Poland amounted to **** zloty and it will increase in July to **** zloty. This is the lowest permissible level of remuneration. In Poland, the minimum wage is set annually by the state and means that if you are legally employed on an employment contract, you cannot earn below the level set by the state. However, the average real remuneration decreased by *** percent in 2022 compared to the previous year and amounted to ******* zloty gross.