While everyone else waits for the price of butter and cucumbers to return to normal, investment migration consultancy firm Henley & Partners has published a 2023 report on the World’s Wealthiest Cities, inhabited by the most millionaires, centi-millionaires and billionaires. One German city has ranked 13th place in the report.

The Henley & Partners World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023

The World’s Wealthiest Cities report covers 97 cities across nine areas of the world: Africa, Australasia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

The Henley & Partners ranking is put together using data collected by New World Wealth (NWW), a wealth intelligence firm which tracks global wealth migration between countries and cities. NWW monitors the spending habits of 150.000 high-net-worth individuals, with a specific focus on individuals with over 10 million US dollars in investable assets. The NWW defines investable wealth as property, cash and listed company holdings.

US and Asia dominate wealthiest cities ranking

A city of extremes, New York topped the 2023 ranking, with 724 centi-millionaires and 58 billionaires. Tokyo got in at number two with 290.300 so-called HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals) and a significant drop in the number of centi-billionaires (250) compared to the Big Apple. 

Unsurprisingly, The Bay Area, which includes San Francisco and Silicon Valley, ranked in third place, with 285.000 HNWIs, 629 centi-millionaires and 63 billionaires. Home to oligarchs and A-list celebrities, London, Singapore and Los Angeles were next, before Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Sydney took the remaining spots in the top 10.

Then, in at number 13 came Frankfurt, home to many of Germany’s banks and bankers. By region, Frankfurt came in second place in Europe, after London. NWW data suggested that the German city has 102.200 HNWIs, 170 centi-millionaires and 16 billionaires. The city in Hesse was the only German place to feature in the list.

The knock-on effects of coronavirus have led the disparities of global wealth inequality to grow even faster than before. According to “Survival of the Richest”, a report published by Oxfam for the opening day of the 2023 World Economic Forum in Switzerland, over the last two years the richest 1 percent have taken home twice as much wealth as the rest of the world population put together. 

Wealthiest cities in the world in 2023

Overall, these are the international cities with the largest number of HNWIs, according to NWW: 

1. New York City (340.000)
2. Tokyo (290.000)
3. The Bay Area (285.000)
4. London (258.000)
5. Singapore (240.100)
6. Los Angeles (205.400)
7. Hong Kong (129.500)
8. Beijing (128.200)
9. Shanghai (127.200)
10. Sydney (126.900)

Thumb image credit: Mikhail Markovskiy / Shutterstock.com