Revealed: Asia is the world’s fastest-growing region for billionaires
Revealed: Asia is the world’s fastest-growing region for billionaires
Asia outpaces every region in terms of billionaire growth. Meanwhile, the gender gap in male and female billionaires widen
WealthX has released a new Billionaire Census, round-up of research detailing the assets, lifestyles, and whereabouts of the world’s richest demographic.
There are now 2,473 billionaires in the world, one for every 2.95 million people on the planet. Most reside in Europe, but Asia is catching up fast.
Representing a wealth of USD1.686 trillion, Asia leads all regions in terms of growth rates for both billionaire population and wealth, at 15.2 percent and 19.6 percent, respectively. Billionaires in the region grew to 645, representing 26.1 percent of the planet’s ultra-rich populace.
In addition, Asia claims 57 percent of all net billionaire additions and 70 percent of all new billionaire wealth.
Along with the Pacific region, Asia is home to 678 billionaires, four times more than those in the Americas (North America, Latin America, and the Carribean), which hosts 782 billionaires.
More: How Asia surpassed Europe as the world’s wealth factory
Although, combined with the Middle East and Africa, Europe is still home to the most billionaires with 1,013 individuals, the Americas represent a superlative total billionaire wealth of USD3 trillion, with USD2.561 trillion in North America alone.
In sum, the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires grew by 5.4 percent to a never-before-recorded USD7.7 trillion. The world’s billionaire populace grew by 6.4 percent.
There continues to be a vast gender gulf in the census, with only 294 female billionaires and 2,179 billionaires in total. This means there were 8.4 male billionaires for each female in 2015, up from a ratio of 8.1 to 1 in 2014.
Only eight of the 148 new billionaires in the list were females.
Other salient takeaways from the study include:
· Liquidity has been rising since 2012, with 22.2 percent of billionaires’ wealth now in cash.
· It’s still the leading industry in terms of billionaire representation, but finance, banking and investment represent just 15.2 percent of all billionaires compared with 19.3 percent in 2014.
· Billionaires from industrial conglomerates continue to come close to the top spot with 12.8 percent representation, up from 12.1 percent in 2014.
· Fifty-six percent of billionaires were self-made, compared with 13 percent for heirs. Thirty-one percent had a combination of self-made wealth and inheritance.
Read next: Cheers to Asian HNWIs, who are among the richest in the world
Source: Property Report