High-Net-Worth Individuals: Statistics 2026

The wealthy are counted by several firms, and their totals differ, mostly because they measure different things: net worth or investable assets, adults or households, survey or model. Read this page as a map of the estimates, each with its definition and date, rather than as a single official number.

Key figures at a glance

Figures checked against their sources on 12 October 2026.

Millionaires

The UBS Global Wealth Report 2026, published on 30 June 2026 and covering 56 markets, counts about 57.5 million US dollar millionaires at the end of 2025. Global personal wealth rose 10.8 percent in dollar terms in 2025, against 4.6 percent in 2024, and the number of millionaires grew by nearly one million, more than 2,600 a day. The United States alone added more than 440,000, almost half of the global increase. Only about 1.5 percent of adults in the UBS sample hold more than 1 million dollars.

A separate measure from Capgemini, published on 4 June 2026, counts about 25.3 million high net worth individuals holding a record 98.3 trillion dollars. Capgemini counts investable assets and excludes the main residence and collectibles, which is why its total is less than half of UBS's. Both are correct; they define wealth differently, which is why totals should never be compared across reports without checking the measure.

Millionaires by country

Source: UBS Global Wealth Report 2026, millionaire counts for 2025 as tabulated by Visual Capitalist on 8 July 2026. Saudi Arabia rose 2.6 percent and the UAE 3.5 percent on 2024 (Gulf News, 30 June 2026).

The concentration is the point. The United States holds more than 40 percent of the world's millionaires, and the United States and mainland China together hold more than half of all personal wealth (UBS, 2026). Western Europe counts slightly fewer than 15 million millionaires and Asia Pacific roughly the same. For families choosing where to live rather than where wealth already sits, see Best Countries for Tax Residency.

The ultra wealthy

Among millionaires sits a much smaller and far richer group. Altrata's World Ultra Wealth Report 2026, released on 23 June 2026, counts 556,850 ultra high net worth individuals, each with a net worth of 30 million dollars or more, holding a combined 63.8 trillion dollars. The population grew 14.4 percent in 2025, its strongest year since 2017, and by almost 30 percent over two years. Their investable assets come to about 26 trillion dollars. Altrata forecasts 746,570 such individuals holding 85 trillion dollars by 2030. Capgemini, counting investable assets of 30 million dollars or more, puts the group at roughly 250,000. This is the population from which most family offices are built.

Billionaires

At the summit, Forbes counted a record 3,428 billionaires worth a combined 20.1 trillion dollars, using share prices and exchange rates as of 1 March 2026. A year earlier the count was 3,028 worth 16.1 trillion dollars. UBS, with its own method, counted 3,302 billionaires in April 2026, more than 1,000 of them in the United States.

The transfer ahead

The number driving the wealth industry is what happens next. Cerulli Associates projects that about 124 trillion dollars of US household wealth will change hands through 2048, about 105 trillion to heirs and 18 trillion to charity. It is a US figure, not a global one, and it is the wave every family office, wealth manager and jurisdiction is positioning for. For how this wealth is organised, see What Is a Family Office? and the Family Office Statistics 2026.

Why the totals differ

Net worth or investable assets. UBS and Altrata count net worth, including property. Capgemini counts investable assets and leaves out the main residence. The same person can be a millionaire in one report and not in the other.

Exchange rates move the count. All of these figures are in US dollars, so a move in the dollar changes the measured wealth of every other country, and with it the number of people above each threshold, even when nothing has changed locally.

Models, not registers. No country keeps a register of millionaires. Each total is an estimate built from household surveys, tax data, rich lists and modelling, and is revised when the method changes.