At the beginning of the year, we showed the countries with the largest population of millionaires in the world on a map. This global vision left us two regions ahead of the rest. Although the United States and China were at the top of the list in terms of large fortunes, there were also less populated settlements along the way where a considerable number of wealthy people lived. Months later, the map left no doubt about the millionaires, centillionaires and billionaires. Only this trend has not changed. Europe is far behind.

Report. As revealed in the latest Henley & Partners Centi-Millionaire Report, Europe lags far behind its Asian and American counterparts when it comes to billionaire travel and shopping. The analysis looks at the growth of the ultra-rich, those worth over $100 million, between 2013 and 2023.

The group has apparently grown by more than 50% in these 10 years, with almost 30,000 people joining the club of the happiest rich. But this astonishing increase in wealth has not been the same everywhere: Europe lags behind, and not by much. The number of centimillionaires has increased by only 26%, half the global growth rate.

Technology is the key. In this context, and trying to give context to the figures, Juerg Steffen, managing director of Henley & Partners, said: “It is clear that the story of the millionaires is one of dynamism and change. From the tech-driven booms in China and the US to the emergence of new wealth centres around the world, the geography of extreme wealth is shifting away from Europe.

The manager also analyzed trends in private wealth and immigration. According to him, the former will not stop anytime soon. Indeed, there is a clear Western European loser here: London, which is expected to add fewer centillionaires to the growing list between now and 2040; Moscow, Zurich and Madrid, among others, are following the city’s lead. Meanwhile, residential areas such as Dubai and Shenzhen will become “musts” for new centillionaires, according to the report.

Three exceptions. However, there are also some hidden gems of European wealth, located in some of the region’s most secretive regions. Where? The report includes Monaco, Malta and Poland, where the number of billionaires is expected to increase by 75% or more.

Why are they avoiding the rest of Europe? There’s really no single reason. As Fortune points out, greater political uncertainty is a good explanation, but it’s not the only one. It’s also because of changing tax policies in places like Italy and the UK, and years of “hidden” trade compared to competition on both sides of the world.

Furthermore, while there are high-profile billionaires like Bernard Arnault or Mark Mateschitz in Europe who have seen their business empires grow tremendously, areas like the United States have benefited more from the migration of wealth, greater stock market liquidity, and overall wealth creation.

The example of the United Kingdom. He is probably the biggest loser in the “key to the ultra-rich and their crops”. This is because, while not so long ago, Britain was one of the richest countries on the continent and in the world, the trend towards wealth transfer has in some ways reversed. More people are fleeing countries like the UK, and Brexit is also a factor (and cannot be ignored).

So according to a July report by UBS Wealth, Britain alone could lose 500,000 millionaires in the next five years. That’s a situation that will drive the wealth to other parts of the old continent, as the same report noted that Belgium, Germany and Spain will also be among the destinations for wealthy Britons looking for a better place to park their money in Europe, at least.

Example of China and the USA. Finally, we cannot ignore two points that leave the European ultra-rich on the planet “dry”. The United States is the country with the largest population of millionaires in the world. In fact, a study conducted in July revealed that 5,492,400 people have assets of more than a million dollars, while 9,850 have assets of more than $100 million. Finally, there are 788 billionaires whose assets exceed a billion dollars.

China, the second country in the number of millionaires, has 862,400, while its centillionaire population has reached 2,352. This means that the population over one hundred million dollars represents 0.27% of the millionaire population, and is above the United States in terms of the distance between the two segments.

They are clearly playing in a different league.

Image | Diego Delso, VirtualCapitalist.com

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