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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 of Hong Kong or Taiwan, for example, may be merely of average wealth, 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.
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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 December 2023[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.
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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 anglicisation millionary 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]
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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]
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Depending on how it is calculated, a million US dollars in 1900 is equivalent to $36.6 million (in 2023):[18]
- $24.8 million using the consumer price index,
- $61.4 million using the gold price[19]
Thus one would need to have almost thirty million dollars today to have the purchasing power of a US millionaire in 1900, or more than 100 million dollars to have the same impact on the US economy.
Dated ways of describing someone worth n millions are "n-fold millionaire" and "millionaire n times over". Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency.[20] There are approximately 584,000 US$ 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]
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High-net-worth individuals (those with financial assets, not including the residence, greater than a million US dollars):
| HNWI Wealth Distribution (by Region)[25] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Region | HNWI Population | HNWI Wealth |
| Global | 12 million | $46.2 trillion |
| North America | 3.73 million | $12.7 trillion |
| Asia-Pacific | 3.68 million | $12.0 trillion |
| Europe | 3.41 million | $10.9 trillion |
| Latin America | 0.52 million | $7.5 trillion |
| Middle East | 0.49 million | $1.8 trillion |
| Africa | 0.14 million | $1.3 trillion |
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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]
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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]
| Rank | Country | Number of UHNWIs (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States | 225,077 |
| 2 |  China | 98,551 |
| 3 |  Germany | 29,021 |
| 4 |  Canada | 27,928 |
| 5 |  France | 24,941 |
| 6 |  United Kingdom | 23,072 |
| 7 |  Japan | 21,710 |
| 8 |  Italy | 15,952 |
| 9 |  Australia | 15,347 |
| 10 |  Switzerland | 14,734 |
| 11 |  India | 13,263 |
| 12 |  Spain | 10,149 |
| 13 |  Netherlands | 8,390 |
| 14 |  Taiwan | 7,640 |
| 15 |  South Korea | 7,310 |
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* indicates "Economy of LOCATION" links.
| Location | Number of millionaires (USD) | Share of global millionaires (USD) (%) | % of millionaires (USD) (% of adult population) |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States * | 21,951,202 | 39.1 | 8.8 |
| China * | 5,279,467 | 9.4 | 0.5 |
| Japan * | 3,662,407 | 6.5 | 3.5 |
| Germany * | 2,952,710 | 5.3 | 4.3 |
| France * | 2,498,939 | 4.4 | 4.9 |
| United Kingdom * | 2,490,952 | 4.4 | 4.7 |
| Australia * | 1,804,644 | 3.2 | 9.4 |
| Canada * | 1,681,969 | 3.0 | 5.6 |
| Italy * | 1,479,830 | 2.6 | 3.0 |
| Spain * | 1,146,911 | 2.0 | 3.0 |
| South Korea * | 1,051,104 | 1.9 | 2.5 |
| Netherlands * | 1,039,239 | 1.9 | 7.7 |
 Switzerland * | 1,034,918 | 1.8 | 14.9 |
| India * | 697,655 | 1.2 | 0.1 |
| Taiwan * | 608,997 | 1.1 | 3.1 |
 Sweden * | 570,439 | 1.0 | 7.3 |
 Hong Kong * | 520,000 | 0.9 | 8.3 |
 Belgium * | 514,859 | 0.9 | 5.7 |
 Austria * | 346,172 | 0.6 | 4.8 |
 Denmark * | 306,823 | 0.5 | 6.7 |
 Singapore * | 269,925 | 0.5 | 5.5 |
 Russia * | 268,550 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
 Mexico * | 264,034 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
 Saudi Arabia * | 236,000 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
 New Zealand * | 225,487 | 0.4 | 6.3 |
 Brazil * | 207,000 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
 Ireland * | 181,727 | 0.3 | 5.0 |
 Norway * | 176,630 | 0.3 | 4.2 |
 Indonesia * | 171,740 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
 United Arab Emirates * | 169,113 | 0.3 | 2.1 |
 Israel * | 164,899 | 0.3 | 2.9 |
 Poland * | 149,120 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
 Portugal * | 136,430 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
 Turkey * | 115,473 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
 Thailand * | 86,216 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
 Finland * | 85,114 | 0.2 | 1.9 |
 Philippines * | 81,000 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
 Kuwait * | 78,650 | 0.1 | 2.5 |
 Greece * | 72,367 | 0.1 | 0.9 |
 Egypt * | 70,000 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
As of December 2023[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]
| Rank | City | Number of millionaires (2023)[28] | Millionaire increase 2013–2023[28] | Wealth held by residents (2021)[29] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York City | 349,500 | 48% | $2.9T |
| 2 | San Francisco Bay Area | 305,700 | 82% | $2.6T |
| 3 | Tokyo | 298,300 | -5% | $2.5T |
| 4 | Singapore | 244,800 | 64% | |
| 5 | London | 227,000 | -15% | $2.3T |
| 6 | Los Angeles | 212,100 | 35% | $1.3T |
| 7 | Greater Paris | 165,000 | 12% | |
| 8 | Sydney | 147,000 | 34% | $1.1T |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 143,400 | -4% | |
| 10 | Beijing | 125,600 | 90% | $2.0T |
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]
| County | State | Metro area | Number of millionaire households |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County | California | Los Angeles | 268,138 |
| Cook County | Illinois | Chicago | 171,118 |
| Orange County | California | Los Angeles | 116,157 |
| Maricopa County | Arizona | Phoenix | 113,414 |
| San Diego County | California | San Diego | 102,138 |
| Harris County | Texas | Houston | 99,504 |
| Nassau County | New York | New York | 79,704 |
| Santa Clara County | California | San Francisco | 74,824 |
| Palm Beach County | Florida | Miami | 71,221 |
| King County | Washington | Seattle | 68,390 |
Look up millionaire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Aggregate demand
- Billionaire
- Business oligarch
- Distribution of wealth
- High-net-worth individual
- Upper middle class
- Upper class
- Six figure income
- Wealth concentration
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (game show)
- The Millionaire Next Door (book)
- Moscow Millionaire Fair
- Pierre Lorillard II (first American to be designated a "millionaire")
- List of African millionaires
- Lists of billionaires
- Sunday Times Rich List
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