Uncovering Asia’s Billionaires

The Hurun Report, a Chinese financial data analytics and research company has uncovered some fascinating facts about the world’s billionaires. Their Global Rich List for 2018 shows just how wealthy Asia has become while also highlighting the fact that China is pulling far ahead of the US in terms of creating new billionaires.

The total wealth of the world’s billionaires increased by a staggering 31% to US$10.5 trillion, equivalent to 13.2% of global GDP, and almost double the 7% of global GDP six years ago. 

It has been an outstanding year for billionaires: 1508 saw their wealth increase and there were 567 new faces.

Chinese billionaires are pulling away from the USA for the third year running, 819 compared with 571.  Just two years ago, they were neck and neck at 534 and 535. Hoogewerf said, “China is going through an amazing period of entrepreneurship, adding 210 billionaires in the past year.”

Last year was a good year to be a billionaire
The world added 437 billionaires last year, more than one a day. But China added four new billionaires every week. There are 2,694 billionaires in the world and they tend to be clustered in Asian cities.

Of the top 10 cities with billionaires, Beijing tops the list followed by New York, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Bangkok and Huangzhou. If you include Hong Kong, Chinese cities hold five of the top 10 positions.

The Number of Billionaires By Country

1- Greater China 819
2- USA 571
3↑ India 131
4↑ UK 118
5↓ Germany 114
6- Switzerland 83
7- Russia 71
8- France 51
9- Brazil 49
9↑ Canada 49
11↓ Japan 46
12↓ Italy 44
12↑ Thailand 44
14↑ Australia 41
15↓ South Korea 33
16↓ Singapore 31
17↓ Turkey 30
18* Mexico 26
19↓ Spain 25
20↓ UAE 24

Published by Editorial Team

The Asia Rising Editorial Team is made up of a multinational team of writers, content experts and journalists from around the world operating out of our Bureaus in New York, Bangkok, Toronto and while on assignment across Asia.