New York Crowned the Richest City in the World 2022; Hong Kong Drops out of Top 10

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American Consultation Firm Henley & Partners Group published its latest World’s Richest Cities Report on Sep 13. The report confirmed that New York, Tokyo, and San Francisco are the cities with the most millionaires.

With Hong Kong dropping quickly from the 8th in 2021 to the 12th this year, it has become the most affected city on the list.

According to the report, there are currently 125,000 millionaires in Hong Kong. Among them, 28 are billionaires.

Hong Kong’s rival Singapore is number five, with 249,800 millionaires in the city, making it the second highest in Asia after Tokyo and fifth in the world.

To be qualified as a millionaire by the list, a person has to own at least US$1 million in investable assets.

Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, said, “10 years ago, Hong Kong was the second richest city in the Asia-Pacific Region next to Tokyo. However, it was surpassed by Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, and Sydney.”

Among the top 20 cities with the most millionaires, New York took the throne with 345,600 millionaires. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston are in the top ten, and Dallas also made it onto the list.

The report showed that Houston is the city that has increased most since 2021, it improved by four places and is now in eighth place.

The number of millionaires in various cities is also shifting. For instance, New York City lost 12 percent of its millionaires in the first half of 2022. But San Francisco saw an increase of four percent. London, on the other hand, dropped nine percent and is now in fourth place.

Based on the data by new world wealth, Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and Sharjah are the fastest growing cities of millionaires in 2022.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are among the cities with fast growth in millionaires. The UAE’s low tax system and new residency plans have attracted the super-rich.

Wealthy Russian immigrants also contributed to the UAE’s record high of wealthy people.

Beijing and Shanghai are losing their richest people, despite being placed at number nine and ten respectively.

Henley & Partners predicted, before publishing the report, that about 10,000 high-net-worth Chinese millionaires would depart from China and migrate overseas in 2022. The Chinese migration trend would take away about $4.8 million per person. The total of $48 billion exiting China makes it the second most significant loss of the rich after Russia.

Experts mentioned that people and capital decamping from China would accelerate China’s social crisis.

Before the Chinese Communist Party implemented Dynamic Zero-COVID to tackle the pandemic, wealthy millionaires had already been quietly fleeing. In 2017, the total number of Chinese billionaires migrating overseas was about 10,000 people, which rose 50 percent to 15,000 in 2018.

In 2019, the number of Chinese emigrating to the west, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, was 15,000, ranking first globally.