High net worth havens: Top 10 wealthiest cities in the world

New York City, Tokyo, San Francisco Bay Area, London, and Singapore have the most HNWIs globally.

New York is ranked as the world's wealthiest city with 340,000 millionaires.
New York is ranked as the world's wealthiest city with 340,000 millionaires. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/losonsky

In the latest report published by Henley & Partners in partnership with New World Wealth, cities in the US and China dominate the world’s top 10 wealthiest cities. Only one European city, London, makes it onto the list.

New York City comes in top as the wealthiest in the world with 340,000 millionaires, followed by Tokyo with 290,300 millionaires. The San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles also made it onto the list, taking 3rd and 6th places, with 285,000 and 205,400 resident high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), respectively.

London, once the wealthiest city in the world, drops down to 4th place with 258,000 resident HNWIs. Meanwhile, Singapore sits in 5th place with 240,100 resident millionaires. Sydney, home to some of the world’s most exclusive residential suburbs, comes in 10th place with 126,900 millionaires. It is projected to break into the global top five wealthiest cities by 2040.

China has three cities in the top 10, with Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai ranking 7th, 8th, and 9th places, respectively. Beijing and Shanghai have both climbed the rankings over the past decade, but Hong Kong has taken a tumble, dropping from 4th place in 2012 down to 7th place currently.

The report shows that seven of the world's top 10 wealthiest cities are in countries that host formal investment migration programmes and actively encourage foreign direct investment in return for residence or citizenship rights.

Top 10 wealthiest cities in the world:
1. New York City, US
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. The Bay Area, US
4. London, UK
5. Singapore, 240,100
6. Los Angeles, US
7. Hong Kong
8. Beijing, China
9. Shanghai, China
10. Sydney, Australia

The US and China continue to dominate the top 10 list of fastest growing cities when it comes to resident millionaires over the past decade. One of China's most enduringly popular holiday spots, Hangzhou, tops the charts in this respect with millionaire growth of 105% between 2012 and 2022.

The three fastest growing millionaire hotspots in the US are Austin, West Palm Beach, and Scottsdale. India has two cities in the Top 10, while Sharjah in the UAE and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam take the final two places.

The report also highlights that traditional wealth magnets such as Monaco and Dubai have experienced especially strong millionaire growth over the past decade. The average wealth of a person living in Monaco exceeds US$10 million, making it the top-ranked city on a wealth per capita basis. Dubai is another established international wealth centre, with its low tax rates making it a magnet for migrating millionaires from all over the world.