World’s wealthiest cities revealed, with London in top ten (2024)

New York City has been found to be the world’s wealthiest city by research that ranks the number of ‘high-net-worth individuals’, with London coming fourth.

Research by investment firm Henley and Partners found that the US city has 340,000 individuals with a wealth of $1 million (£817,000) or more. This includes 724 centimillionaires, with wealth of at least $100 million, and 58 billionaires.

The metrics were gathered using the US dollar, meaning the number of high-net-worth individuals could be much lower if the pound was considered.

While New York has seen a 40 per cent growth, its nearest competitor, Tokyo, has seen its millionaires fall by five per cent to 290,300. A big riser was the San Francisco Bay area, which grew by 68 per cent to 285,000 and within touch of the Japanese city.

Meanwhile, the number of London millionaires fell by 15 per cent to 258,000, and the city now has 384 centimillionaires and 36 billionaires.

“New York City wears the crown as the world’s top city with the most millionaires in 2023,” Henley and Partners said on Monday.

“Seven of the world’s top 10 cities listed are in countries that host formal investment migration programmes and actively encourage foreign direct investment in return for residence or citizenship rights.”

Manchester and Edinburgh were also in the top 97 of the world’s wealthiest, with 24,200 and 12,300 millionaires respectively.

Behind London were Singapore, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Sydney to round out the top 10.

“London is the financial capital of the world, offering an international business environment,” Henley and Partners said of the British capital.

“The UK is also renowned for having some of the best educational institutions in the world and an open, international culture.”

The most expensive cities