A large suburban home valued at roughly $1,000,000 (2006) in Salinas, California, shown for scale of purchasing powerGlobal share of wealth by wealth group, Credit Suisse, 2021
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire.[2] Many national currencies have, or have had at various times, a low unit value, in many cases due to past inflation. It is much easier and less significant to be a millionaire in those currencies, thus a millionaire (in the local currency) in Hong Kong and Taiwan, for example, may be merely averagely wealthy, or perhaps less wealthy than average. A millionaire in Zimbabwe in 2007 could have been extremely poor.[3] Because of this, the term 'millionaire' generally refers to those whose assets total at least one million units of a high-value currency, such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling.
At the end of 2011, there were around 5.1 million HNWIs in the United States,[4] while at the same time there were 11 million millionaires[5] in a total of 3.5 million millionaire households,[6] including those 5.1 million HNWIs. As of December2023[update], there were estimated to be just over 16 million dollar-millionaires in the world according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2024 by Henley & Partners. The United States had the highest number of millionaires (5.5 million) of any country, whilst New York is the wealthiest city with 349,500 millionaires.[7] In countries that use the short scale number naming system, a billionaire is someone who has at least a thousand times a million dollars, euros or pounds.
Terminology
The word "millionaire" was apparently coined in French in 1719 to describe speculators in the Mississippi Bubble who earned millions of livres in weeks before the bubble burst.[8][9][10] The standard French spelling is now millionnaire,[11] though the earliest reference uses a single n.[10] The word was first used (as millionnaire, double "n") in French in 1719 by Steven Fentiman, and is first recorded in English (millionaire, as a French term) in a letter of Lord Byron of 1816, then in print in Vivian Grey, a novel of 1826 by Benjamin Disraeli.[9] Earlier English writers also mention the French word, including Sir William Mildmay in 1764.[12] The OED's first print citation is Benjamin Disraeli's 1826 novel Vivian Grey,[9] The anglicisationmillionary was used in 1786 by Thomas Jefferson while serving as Minister to France; he wrote: "The poorest labourer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest Millionary".[13]
Influence
While millionaires constitute only a small percentage of the population, they hold substantial control over economic resources, with the most powerful and prominent individuals usually ranking among them. The total amount of money held by millionaires can equal the amount of money held by a far higher number of poor people. The Gini coefficient, and other measures in economics, estimated for each country, are useful for determining how many of the poorest people have the equivalent total wealth of the few richest in the country. Forbes and Fortune magazines maintain lists of people based on their net worth and are generally considered authorities on the subject. Forbes listed 1,645 dollar billionaires in 2014, with an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion, an increase from $5.4 trillion the previous year (see US-dollar billionaires in the world).[14]
According to a report by Hurun, a market research firm based in China, the global billionaire population stood at 3,381 in 2022.[15] Sixteen percent of millionaires inherited their fortunes. Forty-seven percent of millionaires are business owners. Twenty-three percent of the world's millionaires got that way through paid work, consisting mostly of skilled professionals or managers.[16] Millionaires are, on average, 61-years-old with $3.05 million in assets.[17]
Historical worth
Depending on how it is calculated, a million US dollars in 1900 is equivalent to $36.6million (in 2023):[18]
Thus one would need to have almost thirty million dollars today to have the purchasing power of a US millionaire in 1900, or more than 100 million dollars to have the same impact on the US economy.
Dated ways of describing someone worth n millions are "n-fold millionaire" and "millionaire n times over". Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency.[20] There are approximately 584,000 US$ multimillionaires who have net assets of $10M+ worldwide in 2017.[21] Roughly 1.5% of US$ millionaires are "ultra-high-net-worth individuals" (ultra-HNWIs), defined as those with a net worth or wealth of $30 million or more. There are approximately 226,000 ultra-HNWIs in the world in 2017, according to Wealth-X.[22] The rising prevalence of people possessing ever increasing quantities of wealth has given rise to additional terms to further differentiate millionaires. Individuals with net assets of 100 million or more of a currency are commonly termed centimillionaires,[23] or more rarely hectomillionaires.[24]
HNWI population
Number of millionaires and ultra-millionaires (more than $30M)
High-net-worth individuals (those with financial assets, not including the residence, greater than a million US dollars):
Global cities with the most super-wealthy millionaires per capita (higher than $30 million)
According to wealth research group Wealth-X that released its latest UHNW Cities report, showing the residential footprint of the world's top ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individual cities. Excluding Monaco – which has very high UHNWI density – Geneva has the highest density of super-wealthy people per capita in the world. The city is known as the most compact metropolitan area, and also enjoys a concentration of affluence. Singapore has the second-highest concentration, followed by San Jose, the center of Silicon Valley, and the largest city in Northern California. While New York City leads in terms of overall UHNW footprint, London has a similar number of UHNW "second homers" despite a considerably smaller population. Paris features as the second-highest European city, after London, Wealth-X said. Among suburbs and smaller towns, Beverly Hills has the highest overall number of UHNW residents, and Aspen has the highest concentration on a per capita basis, the report showed. Ultra-high net worth individuals are defined by Wealth-X as those whose total net worth is higher than $30 million (R400 million).[26]
Number of UHNWIs per country
The following is a list of the countries with the most Ultra high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) as of 2023 as per the 2024 Knight Frank's Wealth Report:[27]
As of December2023[update], New York is the wealthiest city in the world with 350,000 HNWIs according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2024 by Henley & Partners.[28] The amount of wealth held by people in New York City is nearly $3 trillion.[29] Some places have a sharp, quantitative increase in seasonal wealthy residents including cities such as Paris and Miami, Rocky Mountains ski towns like Aspen, and various beachfront towns of the French Riviera like Cannes.[28]
There is a wide disparity in the estimates of the number of millionaires residing in the United States. A quarterly report prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Barclays Wealth in 2007 estimated that there were 16.6 million millionaires in the US.[30] At the end of 2011, there were around 5.1 million HNWIs in the US,[4] while at the same time, there were 11 million millionaires[5] in a total of 3.5 million millionaire households,[6] including those 5.1 million HNWIs.
According to TNS Financial Services, as reported by CNN Money, 2 million households in the US alone had a net worth of at least $1 million excluding primary residences in 2005.[31] According to TNS, in mid-2006 the number of millionaire US households was 9.3 million, with an increase of half a million since 2005.[32] The study found that half of all millionaire households in the US were headed by retirees. In 2004 the United States saw a "33 percent increase over the 6.2 million households that met that criteria [sic] in 2003", fueled largely by the country's real estate boom.[33]
A report by Capgemini for Merrill Lynch on the other hand stated that in 2007 there were approximately 3,028,000 households in the United States who held at least US$1 million in financial assets, excluding collectibles, consumables, consumer durables and primary residences.[34] According to TNS Financial Services, Los Angeles County, California, had the highest number of millionaires,[35] totalling over 262,800 households in mid-2006.[32]
Top 10 counties by HNWIs (more than $1 million, in 2009)[36]
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultra high-net-worth individual. The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916.
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or economic heterogeneity.
A wealth tax is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets or an entity's net worth. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownership of unincorporated businesses, financial securities, and personal trusts. Typically, wealth taxation often involves the exclusion of an individual's liabilities, such as mortgages and other debts, from their total assets. Accordingly, this type of taxation is frequently denoted as a netwealth tax.
High-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a technical term used in the financial services industry for people who maintain liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically, they are defined as holding financial assets valued over US$1 million. A secondary level, a very-high-net-worth individual (VHNWI), refers to someone with a net worth of at least US$5 million. The terminal level, an ultra-high-net-worthindividual (UHNWI), holds US$30 million in investible assets. Individuals with a net worth of over US$1 billion are considered to occupy a special bracket of the UHNWI. These thresholds are broadly used in studies of wealth inequality, government regulation, investment suitability requirements, marketing, financing standards, and general corporate strategy.
Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals and families. It is a discipline which incorporates structuring and planning wealth to assist in growing, preserving, and protecting wealth, whilst passing it onto the family in a tax-efficient manner and in accordance with their wishes. Wealth management brings together tax planning, wealth protection, estate planning, succession planning, and family governance.
Private banking is a general description for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial assets. Private banking is presented by those who provide such services as an exclusive subset of wealth management services, provided to particularly affluent clients. The term "private" refers to customer service rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-market retail banking, usually provided via dedicated bank advisers. It has typically consisted of banking services, discretionary asset management, brokerage, limited tax advisory services and some basic concierge services, typically offered through a gateway provided by a single designated relationship manager.
Affluence refers to an individual's or household's economical and financial advantage in comparison to others. It may be assessed through either income or wealth.
An alternative investment, also known as an alternative asset or alternative investment fund (AIF), is an investment in any asset class excluding capital stocks, bonds, and cash.
The inequality of wealth has substantially increased in the United States in recent decades. Wealth commonly includes the values of any homes, automobiles, personal valuables, businesses, savings, and investments, as well as any associated debts.
Plutonomy is the science of production and distribution of wealth.
The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine Forbes. The list was first published in March 1987. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt and other factors. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists. This ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding any ranking of those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It features a profile of each billionaire, and includes a tool that allows users to compare the fortunes of multiple billionaires. The index is updated every day at the close of trading in New York.
The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act of 2021 is a proposed bill in the United States Congress, which would impose a tax on the wealth of the top 0.05% of Americans. The act was proposed and introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Representative Brendan Boyle. The bill mandates that any household or trust with any net worth between $50 million to $1 billion will be taxed 2% of their net worth annually and any household or trust surpassing $1 billion will have a surtax of 1%. Senator Warren expects the bill to raise $3 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years.
1 2 "Global Wealth Databook 2021"(PDF). Credit Suisse. Retrieved 24 June 2021.Page 130 features the number of millionaires. Share of millionaires in the population was obtained by dividing the number of millionaires by the number of adults, rounded to decimals.
↑ DeJean, Joan (2018). "Chaptrer Twelve: The Invention of Money". The Queen's Embroiderer: A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. fn.15. ISBN9781632864765. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
1 2 3 "Millionaire (n. and adj.)". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 20 July 2008. 1816 BYRON Let. 23 June (1976) V. 80 He is still worth at least 50-000 pds—being what is called here [sc. Evian] a 'Millionaire' that is in Francs & such Lilliputian coinage. 1826 B. DISRAELI Vivian Grey I. ix, Were I the son of a Millionaire, or a noble, I might have all.
1 2 Buchet, Pierre-François, ed. (October 1719). "Faits Fugitifs". Mercure de France (in French). Paris: 201. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
↑ "millionaire". English to French Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
↑ "Millionary, n. and adj". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 21 July 2008. 1786 T. JEFFERSON Observ. on Démeunier's Manuscript 22 June in Papers (1954) X. 52 The poorest labourer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest Millionary
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