Here is a list of The Top 10 Wealthiest Cities in the World in 2023
New York City
New York City comprises 5 boroughs sitting where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. At its core is Manhattan, a densely populated borough that’s among the world’s major commercial, financial and cultural centers. Its iconic sites include skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building and sprawling Central Park. Broadway theater is staged in neon-lit Times Square.
The Big Apple is home to 340,000 millionaires, 724 centi-millionaires, and 58 billionaires. It is the financial center of the USA and the wealthiest city in the world by several measures. It is also home to the world’s two largest stock exchanges by market cap (the NYSE and the Nasdaq). The city comprises the five boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, and features some of the world’s most exclusive residential streets, including 5th Avenue in Manhattan where prime apartment prices can exceed USD 27,000 per square meter.
Area codes: 212/646/332, 718/347/929, 917
GMP (2021): $2.0 trillion (1st)
Named for: James, Duke of York
Tokyo
Tokyo officially the Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to), is the capital and most populous city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area (including neighboring prefectures, 13,452 square kilometers or 5,194 square miles) is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents as of 2018; although this number has been gradually decreasing since then, the prefecture itself has a population of 14.09 million people while the city’s central 23 special wards have a population of 9.73 million. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan’s economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.
Tokyo has 290,300 resident millionaires, 250 centi-millionaires, and 14 billionaires. The city is home to a relatively low number of billionaires when compared to the other cities in our Top 10 list — this shows that wealth is relatively evenly distributed in Tokyo with the middle classes and lower-tier millionaires controlling most of the city’s capital. Major companies based in Tokyo include Hitachi, Honda, Mitsubishi, Softbank, and Sony.
The Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California based around San Francisco Bay, including both the San Pablo Bay, and Suisun Bayestuaries, in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Governments to include the nine counties that border the aforementioned estuaries: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. Other definitions may be either smaller or larger, and may include neighboring counties that do not border the bay such as Santa Cruz and San Benito (more often included in the Central Coast regions); or San Joaquin, Merced, and Stanislaus (more often included in the Central Valley). The core cities of the Bay Area are Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose.
The Bay Area, which includes the City of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, is home to 285,000 millionaires, as well as 629 centi-millionaires and a high number of billionaires at 63. Most of the world’s top tech companies are based in the Bay Area including Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Facebook (Meta), Google (Alphabet), HP, Intel, LinkedIn, Lyft, Netflix, OpenAI, PayPal, Twitter, Uber, Yahoo, and Zoom.
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name “London” also refers to the metropolis around this core, historically split among the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority
In 2000, London was the top city in the world for millionaires, but it has slipped down the list over the past 20 years. Notwithstanding this, London still contains some of the world’s most exclusive residential suburbs, including the likes of Belgravia, Chelsea, Hampstead, Knightsbridge, Mayfair, Regents Park, and St. Johns Wood. London has 258,000 resident millionaires, 384 centi-millionaires, and 36 billionaires.
Singapore
Singapore is widely regarded as the most business-friendly city in the world and is one of the top destinations for migrating millionaires — approximately 2,800 high-net-worth individuals moved there in 2022 according to the latest Henley Wealth Migration Dashboard. Singapore is currently home to 240,100 millionaires, 329 centi-millionaires, and 27 billionaires.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles often referred to by its initials L.A., officially the City of Los Angeles, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California. With roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits as of 2020, Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind only New York City; it is the commercial, financial and cultural center of the Southern California region. Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate, an ethnically and culturally diverse population, in addition to a sprawling metropolitan area.
LA is home to 205,400 millionaires, as well as 480 centi-millionaires and 42 billionaires. Our figures for this area include wealth held in the City of Los Angeles, as well as nearby Beverly Hills and Malibu. Major industries include entertainment, media, real estate, retail, tech, and transport.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (abbr.Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and a special administrative region in China. With 7.4 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories in the world.
Hong Kong is home to 129,500 millionaires, 290 centi-millionaires, and 32 billionaires. Despite poor growth over the past decade, the city-state continues to be one of the world’s top financial hubs, with many of Asia’s wealthiest businesspeople still basing themselves there. The Hong Kong Stock Market remains one of the world’s most important stock exchanges.
Beijing
Beijing has 128,200 resident millionaires, 354 centi-millionaires, and 43 billionaires. The official capital city of China, Beijing is the base for many of the world’s largest companies. Its billionaire population is particularly high — only New York City and the Bay Area rank higher based on this measure.
Shanghai
Widely regarded as the financial capital of China, Shanghai is home to 127,200 millionaires, 332 centi-millionaires, and 40 billionaires. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the third-largest stock market in the world by market cap (after the NYSE and the Nasdaq).
Sydney
With 126,900 resident millionaires, 184 centi-millionaires, and 15 billionaires, Sydney is home to some of the world’s most exclusive residential suburbs including Bellevue Hill, Darling Point, Mosman, Point Piper, and Vaucluse. The city has experienced especially strong wealth growth over the past 20 years and is quickly becoming one of the wealthiest cities in the Asia Pacific region. We expect this growth to continue, with Sydney projected to break into the global Top 5 wealthiest cities by 2040.
