In 2023, there were approximately six million millionaires in China. The number of millionaires in China was projected to increase to about 6.5 million by 2028, indicating a growth by around eight percent.

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2025, the United States housed the highest number of billionaires worldwide in 2025. In detail, there were 870 billionaires living in the United States as of January that year. By comparison, 823 billionaires resided in China. India, the United Kingdom, and Germany were also the homes of a significant number of billionaires that year. United States has regained its first place As the founder and exporter of consumer capitalism, it is no surprise that the United States is home to a large number of billionaires. Although China had briefly overtaken the U.S. in recent years, the United States has reclaimed its position as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Moreover, North America leads the way in terms of the highest number of ultra high net worth individuals – those with a net worth of more than fifty million U.S. dollars. The prominence of Europe and North America is a reflection of the higher degree of economic development in those states. However, this may also change as China and other emerging economies continue developing. Female billionaires Moreover, the small proportion of female billionaires does little to counter critics claiming the global economy is dominated by an elite comprised mainly of men. On the list of the 20 richest people in the world, only one was a woman. Moreover, recent political discourse has put a great amount of attention on the wealth held by the super-rich with the wealth distribution of the global population being heavily unequal.

In 2021, the number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in China amounted to over nine million. The number of HNWIs in the country was projected to increase significantly, reaching more than 17 million by 2026. In comparison, Southeast Asia's most populous country Indonesia had just over 82 thousand high net worth individuals in 2021. China also had the highest number of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in APAC that year.

The highest number of billionaires in 2023 was found in North America, reaching over 1,100. They were closely followed by Europe and Asia, whereas the gap down to the other regions of the world was significant.

As of March 2025, Alice Walton was ranked the richest woman with over 97 billion U.S. dollars in net worth. By comparison, the richest man in the world had a fortune of over 328 billion dollars as of March 2025. The philanthropy of MacKenzie Scott MacKenzie Scott has become well known in the world of philanthropy for providing billions to thousands of non-profit organizations. Globally, the United States has the most philanthropic outflows out of any nation, reaching nearly 49 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. By comparison, the country with the second highest philanthropic outflows, the United Kingdom, reached nearly 5.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Across the United States, basic needs, religious and spiritual causes, and healthcare are the sectors affluent individuals have given the most. Wealth in the United States Out of each country, the United States has the most people within the top one percent of ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally, with 21 million residents belonging to this group. By comparison, China ranked second with over five million belonging to the top one percent of ultra-high net worth individuals. Regionally, North America has the most billionaires, reaching over 1,100 followed by Europe and Asia.

In 2020, individuals of Chinese descent made up over 50 percent of the billionaires across all selected Southeast Asian countries. The highest share was reported in Singapore, with 91 percent of the country's billionaires being of Chinese descent.

In 2021, the number of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in China amounted to approximately 93.85 thousand. The number of UHNWIs in the country was projected to increase significantly, reaching around 133.5 thousand by 2026. In comparison, Southeast Asia's most populous country Indonesia had just over 1.4 thousand ultra high net worth individuals in 2021, a number which was set to increase slightly over the next years. Thailand was the only country in the region where the number of UHNWIs was projected to decrease until 2026. China also had the highest overall number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in APAC that year.

This statistic shows a ranking of the estimated number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) in 2020 in Asia, differentiated by country. High Net Worth Individuals are here defined as persons with investible assets of at least 1 million US$ in current exchange rate terms.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

In 2019, there were approximately 342 billionaires residing in China, the highest number of billionaires in any country or territory in the Asia-Pacific region. Comparatively, there were 45 billionaires living in Singapore in 2019.

In 2019, Hong Kong was the city with the highest amount of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region, as there were 96 billionaires in the city that year. Comparatively, there were 30 billionaires in Tokyo in 2019.

In 2023, North America had the highest number of high net worth individuals, with 7.88 million HNWIs living there. In Asia Pacific, there were also 7.39 billion HNWIs registered in 2023. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) are people with wealth exceeding one million 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.

By 2030, the middle-class population in Asia-Pacific is expected to increase from 1.38 billion people in 2015 to 3.49 billion people. In comparison, the middle-class population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase from 114 million in 2015 to 212 million in 2030.

Worldwide wealth

While the middle-class has been on the rise, there is still a huge disparity in global wealth and income. The United States had the highest number of individuals belonging to the top one percent of wealth holders, and the value of global wealth is only expected to increase over the coming years. Around 57 percent of the world’s population had assets valued at less than 10,000 U.S. dollars; while less than one percent had assets of more than million U.S. dollars. Asia had the highest percentage of investable assets in the world in 2018, whereas Oceania had the highest percent of non-investable assets.

The middle-class

The middle class is the group of people whose income falls in the middle of the scale. China accounted for over half of the global population for middle-class wealth in 2017. In the United States, the debate about the middle class “disappearing” has been a popular topic due to the increase in wealth to the top billionaires in the nation. Due to this, there have been arguments to increase taxes on the rich to help support the middle-class.

This statistic illustrates the number of billionaires in leading cities in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Asia) region as of 2016. It can be seen that the number of billionaires in Moscow stood at a total of 71, making Moscow the city in the EMEA region with the most billionaires at that time. Although this is the case London was not far behind, ranking second with a total of 62 billionaires as of 2016.

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.

Warren Buffett made his first million U.S. dollars at thirty years old. At 83 years old, his wealth amounted to 58.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Buffett’s wealth

Warren Buffett is one of the most renowned and successful investors worldwide. The most significant business association is his leadership of Berkshire Hathaway. It is a conglomerate involved in multiple industries. Under his leadership, the company is one of the largest in the world by market value (263264). Warren Buffet’s investment style is called “value investing”. It means that he seeks undervalued companies with high growth potential.

Other high net worth individuals

Buffett has consistently ranked as one of the world’s top billionaires. While the richest individuals in the world tend to be from North America and Europe, the largest concentration of billionaires is in the Asia-Pacific region. Billionaires around the world generate a lot of interest, though there are only several hundreds of them worldwide.