The streets of London may not be paved with gold, but there’s clearly still plenty of it around.
One in 39 Londoners – or 227,000 people in a population of 8.8 million – has at least $1 million in liquid, investable wealth. according to to the World’s Richest Cities 2024 Report.
The research, compiled by Henley & Partners and New World Wealth, ranks the British capital fifth globally for its wealthy population, behind New York (349,500 millionaires), San Francisco and the Bay Area (305,700), Tokyo (298,300) and Singapore (244,800).
Paris came seventh in the world and second in Europe, with 165,000 liquid millionaires. Despite being home to the world’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, the French capital also trails London in total billionaires, with 23 compared to London’s 35.
It’s not surprising that high net worth individuals (HNWIs) are congregating in major global cities like these, where so much wealth is created and managed.
However, the rankings reflect more than just the economic activity of the cities in question. Policy also has an impact.
London and Britain have historically been very successful at attracting foreign high net worth individuals, but the country has seen a net outflow of millionaires since the 2016 Brexit referendum, according to Henley data.
“Whatever you may think about the benefits of Brexit, this cohort is voting with its feet. Combined with the policy change to abolish permanent non-domiciled taxpayer status, Brexit has made the UK less hospitable and hospitable to high net worth individuals,” said Trevor Williams, former chief economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial. commented last year.
2022-2023 also saw a sharp increase in net outflows of millionaires, with an estimated 5,000 people leaving – something likely linked to Britain’s abrupt end to its first investor visa (or ‘ golden’ visa) after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
London and Paris were joined by fifteen other European cities in the global top 50, with Dublin having the fastest growing millionaire population and Moscow the fastest declining.
