The US is home to the most ultra-rich

There were over 2,700 billionaires worldwide as of April 2024, with a combined net worth of $14.2 trillion, according to Forbes estimates. But even among the ultra-rich, wealth is far from evenly distributed, with significant concentration in just a few countries and among a small group of people.

A visualcapitalist.com analysis, based on Knight Frank's 2025 Wealth Report, highlights the Top 11 countries home to the ultra-rich. According to the cited source, American billionaires own the largest share of this global wealth, together controlling $5.7 trillion - more than the combined wealth of their counterparts in the next ten countries ($5.5 trillion).

According to the Knight Frank report, the US is home to 30% of the world's billionaires, or 40% of their total wealth, representing the highest share in the last ten years.

However, since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president in January 2025, several top American billionaires, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault, have collectively lost $209 billion due to the decline in the values of their companies' shares and the market.

While the US is currently home to the most billionaires, many of the world's richest people are emigrating. Between 2015 and 2025, China recorded the largest net gain in billionaires compared to any other global region.

The top countries hosting the world's wealthy are, after the US: China ($1.34 trillion), India ($950 billion), France ($670 billion), Germany ($640 billion), Russia ($540 billion), Hong Kong ($330 billion), Canada ($300 billion), Italy ($300 billion), Brazil ($230 billion), and the UK ($230 billion).

• 176 ultra-rich with a combined net worth of over $400 billion have emigrated since 2020

Since 2020, the year of the Covid pandemic, 176 ultra-rich individuals with a combined net worth of over $400 billion have moved to a new country, which is the equivalent of about 1 in 15 of the world's billionaires, according to visualcapitalist.com. The cited source, which relies on data from UBS, notes that among the top destinations for billionaires who have emigrated are China, Switzerland and the US, while Eastern Europe has seen the largest outflow of billionaires over the past decade.

On a net basis, China has gained more billionaires than any other global region over the past decade, reaching a total of 501 in 2024, according to UBS figures. Overall, 73 ultra-wealthy individuals moved to the Asian country, while 48 left, resulting in a net increase of 25 billionaires. Despite recent economic challenges, the collective wealth of China's billionaires has doubled since 2015, reaching $1.8 trillion.

Regionally, Western Europe follows in the UBS rankings, gaining 20 billionaires. In total, billionaires in the region hold wealth worth $2.7 trillion, up 16% from 2023. Germany has the highest number of billionaires, with 117, followed by Switzerland (85) and the United Kingdom (82).

In third place is North America, with 55 billionaires moving here in the past decade, while 42 left. This brings the net migration to 13 people.

Amid the stock market boom of 2024, the US was home to a total of 835 billionaires, with a combined wealth of $5.8 trillion, up 27.6% over the year. Together, California and New York are home to about 40% of the country's richest individuals.

Similarly, the wealth of billionaires in the Middle East and Africa grew significantly in 2024 (+21.5%). In the United Arab Emirates, for example, billionaire wealth increased by 39.5% between 2023 and 2024 alone. With 18 ultra-rich individuals, the Emirates has the most billionaires in the region, outside of Israel, which has 32. Since 2020, the Middle East and Africa have attracted the largest influx of billionaire wealth in the world, UBS concludes.