New York City Is Named the Billionaire Capital of the World
New York has been named the billionaire capital of the world as it boasts 136 of the super wealthy moguls, fresh analysis shows. The Big Apple came out ahead of Hong Kong, Moscow and London which ranked second, fourth and fifth respectively in the billionaire’s list.
Meanwhile, San Francisco and Los Angeles were the other two US cities to make the top ten, according to figures compiled by data firm Altrata and wealth valuation company Wealth X using figures from 2022. San Francisco is home to 84 billionaires while LA has 58 – making them the third and seventh in the listings.
The report noted that there had been a two per cent fall in the number of billionaires in the US – yet it still dominated the rankings. And New York lost two of its billionaire citizens between 2021 and 2022, the data showed.
Some of the city’s most prominent high-net individuals include former mayor Michael Bloomberg who has a net worth of $94.5 billion, according to Forbes’s real-time wealth index. Bloomberg made much of his wealth by cofounding his namesake financial information and media company in 1981.
He is joined by New York’s so-called ‘richest woman’ Julia Koch who is worth $56.9 billion after she inherited a 42 per cent stake in Koch Industries from her husband David following his death in 2019, aged 79.
The city is also famous for its ‘Billionaire’s Row’ – a name given to the group of ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers in the southern end of Central Park. San Francisco is also boosted up by the rankings thanks to its thriving tech sector in Silicon Valley.
The city is home to billionaires such as Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg and Laurene Powell Jobs – the widow of Apple founder Steve. According to a separate study by Wealth-X, there is one ultra-wealthy homeowner in San Francisco for every 505 residents.
In all the top 16 cities account for 29 per cent of the global billionaire class, the study showed. Analysts wrote: ‘For the first time in four years, North America registered falls in its billionaire population and combined wealth – although it retained its status as the leading billionaire region.
‘The main hit to regional wealth holdings came from a slump in capital markets, spooked by aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve that signalled an abrupt end to the decade-long bull market in risk assets.’
But it added wealth portfolios had been bolstered by resilient energy stocks and strong consumer spending while the US dollar appreciated against most major global currencies. Across the board, the report noted that billionaire numbers were falling due to volatile economic conditions.
Only two of the top 15 countries – Singapore and Russia – increased their billionaire populations in 2022. Otherwise, all countries saw their number of uber-wealthy individuals decline. What’s more, researchers found that women make up a modest 12.5 per cent share of the total number of global billionaires.
And only 9.5 per cent of billionaires were under the age of 50. Meanwhile, those aged between 50 and 70 accounted for 48.2 per cent of the total and those over 70 represented 42.2 per cent. The data comes after figures showed the eight richest men in America had seen close to $400 billion erased from their fortunes in 2022.
Twitter owner Elon Musk’s net worth shrunk by $140 billion while Jeff Bezos’s wealth dropped b $86 billion. The falls were sparked by plunging tech stocks which reacted to historic inflation, red-hot interest rates and the possibility of a recession.
