New York Is The City With The Most Billionaires

Photo: Craig Warga/Bloomberg

New York City is still the world capital for the ultra-rich. Seventy-nine billionaires call the Big Apple AAPL +4.01% home, holding a combined $364.6 billion in wealth. These include two of the world’s 10 richest people: industrialist David Koch and media titan Michael Bloomberg.
Despite the enduring allure of America’s wealthiest city, Asian metropolises are increasingly becoming billionaire magnets. Asia’s financial capital, Hong Kong, jumped ahead of Moscow into the number two spot this year. Its 68 billionaire residents are worth a combined $261.3 billion.
Contrary to a widely circulated report from Chinese research firm Hurun last week calling Beijing “The New Billionaire Capital of the World,” the city is just fourth in line, with 51 residents holding three-comma fortunes, according to Forbes’ research. This year the Chinese capital surpassed London, home to 47 billionaires.

In all, six of the top 10 cities with the most billionaires this year were in Asia. These included China’s other economic powerhouses, Shanghai and Shenzhen; India’s financial hub, Mumbai; and South Korea’s high-tech capital, Seoul. San Francisco, with its concentration of tech billionaires, is the only other American city in the top 10 (if you counted the entire metropolitan region and Silicon Valley, it would come in second, with 70 billionaires).

The popularity of Asia’s urban centers is not surprising. More billionaires hail from the Asia-Pacific region than any other region of the world – 590 compared to 540 from the United States. More than 70 newcomers to the World’s Billionaires List in 2016 were Chinese nationals, more than double the number of Americans. Still, there are more than twice as many American billionaires as Chinese ones (540 vs. 252), holding four times as much wealth ($2.4 trillion vs. $594 billion).
Hong Kong and Beijing may well overtake New York as the billionaire capital soon – but not yet.
Here is the full list of the top 10 cities home to the most billionaires:
1. New York
Billionaires: 79
Combined net worth: $364.6 billion
2. Hong Kong
Billionaires: 68
Combined net worth: $261.3 billion
3. Moscow
Billionaires: 60
Combined net worth: $217.6 billion
4. Beijing
Billionaires: 51
Combined net worth: $149.9 billion
5. London
Billionaires: 47
Combined net worth: $186.2 billion
6. Mumbai
Billionaires: 32
Combined net worth: $115.1 billion
7. Shanghai
Billionaires: 31
Combined net worth: $66.1 billion
8. Shenzhen
Billionaires: 30
Combined net worth: $78 billion
9. Seoul
Billionaires: 29
Combined net worth: $72.8 billion
10. San Francisco
Billionaires: 28
Net worth: $74.5 billion