Billionaire wealth soars: Tech titans drive U.S. dominance
The fortunes of billionaires around the world have more than doubled in less than a decade, according to an analysis by Swiss bank UBS. The report highlights that the wealthiest individuals from the technology sector, mainly in the U.S., have been the primary beneficiaries.
From 2015 to 2024, the total wealth of billionaires increased by 121%—from $6.3 trillion to $14 trillion, as per the analysis by Swiss bank UBS. During this period, the number of billionaires globally increased from 1,757 to 2,682.
Millionaires worldwide: the U.S. is unmatched
The analysis shows that the wealth of Chinese billionaires more than doubled from 2015 to 2020, reaching $2.1 trillion, but then decreased to $1.8 trillion following the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the net worth of America's wealthiest individuals consistently increased throughout this period. American billionaires had a combined wealth of $6.1 trillion in 2024, more than double their wealth in 2015.
In Western Europe, the fortunes of billionaires increased from $1.5 trillion to $2.1 trillion from 2015 to 2020, after which growth slowed. By 2024, their total wealth amounted to $2.7 trillion.
As for the number of millionaires—Americans are unmatched. The report for 2024 indicates there were almost 22 million of them (out of a population of about 335 million). China ranks second, with just over 6 million millionaires, about twice as many as the United Kingdom, which comes next. In percentage terms, a whopping 38% of the world's millionaires reside in the U.S., 28% in Western Europe, and one out of every ten is in China.
According to the study's authors, the least profitable sector was real estate, due in part to the pandemic and the rise in interest rates in the United States and Europe.
