Hong Kong is home to most ultra-wealthy people, not NYC
New York City, the largest city of US, has been toppled by Asia's giant Hong Kong, as the home to the maximum number of ultra-wealthy people. The former British colony now has more than 10,000 residents, each of who control at least $30 million. In NYC, this number is 8,900. Tokyo is ranked third with 6,800, followed by Paris and London, said a report.
Hong Kong saw a 31% jump, while NYC saw 7%
The study, done by Wealth-X, a research firm headquartered in New York, said Hong Kong's massive and staggering growth is due to China's growing economy and a rapid growth of stock markets, particularly China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange. While Hong Kong's number of wealthy people saw a 31% jump from 2016 to 2017, NYC reported a relatively meager increase of 7%.
Still, US has many more billionaires and multi-millionaires
However it doesn't mean NYC is losing its sheen. It just means "Hong Kong has grown fantastically, powered by a tremendous stock market performance," said Vincent White, co-author of the report. Given everything, US still has many more billionaires and multi-millionaires than the mainland China and Hong Kong combined. For instance, about 80,000 Americans have net worth over $30 million.
Report smells of shift of global wealth-creation to Asia
This is against 17,000 in mainland China and 10,000 in Hong Kong. Japan, at second, is home to 6,800 ultra-wealthy people. Also, of 10 cities with maximum ultra-wealthy people five are in US, said the report. Despite these facts, this report surely smells of a shift of global wealth-creation from them to Asia, especially China economy, which has grown by 6% in recent years.
Is China emerging as the next big economy?
The Red Dragon also has 26 of 30 cities with fastest-growing numbers of super-rich people. Though US economy, with GDP totaling $18 trillion, is larger than any in Asia, China's per capita income has more than quadrupled. Even retail sales have eclipsed that of the US. All these have led to dramatic rise of China's projects, said the firm, which studies the world's wealthiest.
"Chinese workforce is bigger and more educated than ever before"
"The Chinese workforce is bigger and more educated than ever before," said Maeen Shaban, a senior analyst at the Wealth-X Institute. "And Hong Kong is the main financial hub connecting this Chinese market to the rest of Asian and Southeast Asia."
