The Strategist

Asia outperforms the United States by the number of billionaires



10/27/2017 - 12:46



The number of billionaires from Asia grew by 23%, to 637 people, in 2016, according to a report of UBS Bank and the consulting company PwC. Thus, Asia has overtaken the US in the number of billionaires (563 people). US billionaires are still leading by the size of the aggregate, but this indicator clearly suggests that Asia can come out on top in the coming years. The number of billionaires around the world increased by 10% last year, to 1.5 thousand people, and their combined capital - by 17%, to $ 6 trillion.



Maeao Wingta Zchaung
Maeao Wingta Zchaung
According to a report prepared by the Swiss bank UBS together with the consulting company PwC and published on Thursday, last year Asia outperformed the US in terms of the number of dollar billionaires. In 2016, their number in Asia reached 637 people, while the number of billionaires in the US was 563 people. At the same time, the Asian region showed very strong growth in this respect - for a year the number of billionaires here has grown by 23% (117 people). Most of the new billionaires - 101 people - live in China. In general, the number of billionaires in the world increased by 10% in 2016, to 1542 people.

The cumulative capital of billionaires grew by 17%, to $ 6 trillion. The capital of billionaires from Asia has grown more than the world average - by 31%, to almost $ 2 trillion. Nevertheless, the US remains the leader - US billionaires own a total of $ 2.8 trillion. The state of European billionaires grew only by 5%, to $ 1.3 trillion, and their number increased by only three people, to 342.

The average age of billionaires in the world was 63 years (to compare, it was 60 years in 1995), while Asian billionaires are on average slightly younger - 59 years (55 years for China), and American and European are even older - 67 and 66 years respectively. The majority is billionaires of the first generation (70%); there was less than half of such billionaires in 1995 - 45%.

This is the third consecutive report of UBS and PwC A report on estimating the number of billionaires around the world and their capital. According to Josef Stadler, one of the authors of the UBS report: "Not only we see a return to the growth of the number of billionaires this year, but also a significant shift in geography. The impressive growth of capital in Asia indicates that it can bypass the US in the next four years."

In turn, judging by the number of millionaires, Asia has been a leader for more than a year. According to the latest information from Capgemini consulting company, the number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region in 2017 reached 5.5 million people (the second place is taken by North America - 5.2 million), and their combined state amounted to $ 18.8 trillion ($ 18 trillion in the North America).

source: thenewsmarket.com