Most of the rich people in the world live here

While ordinary humans are suffering from increasingly high prices, there are more and more wealthy people. According to the British consulting firm Knight Frank, the number of nouveau riche people is decreasing. Those with more than $30 million are considered HNWIs or “ultra-high-net-worth individuals,” as they are called in wealth management.

In North America, where most wealthy people live, their number rose from 146,232 to 228,159 from 2017 to 2022. In Asia, the number also rose by more than 50 percent to 150,362 during this period. There are currently 155,996 ultra-rich people living in Europe, an even greater number than in Asia.

But that is likely to change in the next five years, as Spiegel reported. Growth will slow by 2027: Asia will then have more than 210,000 HNWIs, and Europe just over 187,000. This is followed by Oceania (30,000), Latin America (16,000), the Middle East (11,784), and Africa (2,624). According to Knight Frank forecasts, North America will remain the leader with about 286,000 ultra-rich people.

But why are there more and more rich people? According to Knight Frank consultants, the reasons vary depending on the region: in China, for example, the increase is a result of economic progress. But in North America and Europe, this indicates a concentration of wealth at the top.

When you are rich varies greatly from country to country. In Kenya, you only need a fortune of $20,000 to be among the richest in the world. Three million are needed in Germany for this purpose, and in the United States 5 million.

Unsurprisingly, the Swiss need more – with just 6.6 million people, they are in the richest percentile. The leader in this category is Monaco: here, $12.4 million is needed to reach the 1% club.

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Economists at the International Monetary Fund believe that the concentration of wealth at the top of society is worrying. Economic dynamism suffers from the concentration of capital in the hands of a few people. Rich people are considered risk averse and do not invest in innovations. Of course there are exceptions like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.