Yahoo Finance The world’s richest people live in the US, Japan, Germany, and China
The vast majority of the world’s richest people still live in the United States, Japan, Germany, and China, according to a new report.
Capgemini’s World Wealth Report 2019, published on Tuesday, reveals that 61% of the world’s high net worth individuals live in those four countries — a similar figure to last year.
France, the UK, and Switzerland rank in fifth, sixth, and seventh place, respectively, followed by Canada.
But while the US improved its dominance slightly with around 1% growth, the number of high net worth individuals declined by 5% in China, and by around 1% in Japan and Germany.
The report also shows some bigger global shifts. Despite contending with several political and economic crises in 2018, Italy managed to overtake Australia in the global ranking of high net worth individuals, moving to ninth place.
Meanwhile, stock market corrections and a shift in property prices, in part as a result of regional headwinds, saw Hong Kong slip two places to 21st place.
READ MORE: The world's millionaires lost $2 trillion in 2018
In general, the Asia-Pacific region was negatively impacted the most of any region. China was the “key reason”, and accounted for almost 25% of global wealth decline, according to the report.
Europe also saw a “noticeable dip”, the report says, while the Middle East was the only region to record increases in high net worth individual wealth and population.
The report also found that the collective wealth of high net worth individuals declined for the first time in seven years in 2018.
Their wealth declined by 3%, or by around $2 trillion. The world’s millionaires are collectively worth over $68 trillion, according to Capgemini.
The UK’s richest people saw a “significant” fall in their wealth, which collectively fell by 6%.
“The UK economy grew by only slightly more than 1% in 2018, its lowest since 2012,” the report noted, pointing to Brexit-related political paralysis and its impact on market uncertainty.
Capgemini’s report was based on a survey of 2,500 millionaires globally.
