After losing to Beijing for the first time in six years in 2021, New York City is back as the world’s premiere billionaire destination.
New York City has taken back its crown. With 107 billionaire residents, worth over $640 billion, The Big Apple is home to more three-comma club members than any other city on the planet. A fresh infusion of wealth–and trouble in Asia’s markets over the past year–helped end the short-lived reign of Beijing, which usurped New York as the top billionaire city for the first time in six years in 2021.
As New York thrived, Beijing and other Chinese cities floundered amid regulatory crackdowns by China’s government on industries ranging from ecommerce to after-school tutoring. Only Shanghai moved up a place in the rankings, to No. 5. Beijing fell to No. 2, Shenzhen fell to No. 6 and Hangzhou fell out of the top 10 from the No. 10 spot in 2021. The Chinese cities on this year’s top 10 list have lost a total of 29 billionaires and some $375.6 billion in wealth since last year. Still, China has more cities in the top 10 than any other country, beating out the U.S., which is the runner-up with New York City and San Francisco.
No city experienced a bigger drop than Moscow, which fell from the No. 4 top billionaire city in 2021 to No. 7 this year. Tough international sanctions and shuttered markets meant 34 Russians dropped off the 2022 World’s Billionaire List; about three-quarters of them lived in Moscow. The collective fortune of the billionaires living in Russia’s capital is now $214.9 billion, down from $420.6 billion last year. It was only a decade ago that Moscow topped the list of cities with the most billionaire residents.
Despite shifting within the rankings, the cities where billionaires are choosing to live are largely the same. The only new entry to the list this year was the South Korean capital of Seoul, which replaced Hangzhou in the No. 10 spot. Of the 2,668 billionaires on this year’s billionaires list, almost a quarter of them live in just 10 places.
Here are the 10 cities in the world with the most billionaires:
Data is as of March 11, 2022
1.
New York: 107 billionaires
Since last year: +8
Total net worth: $640.4 billion (+$797.9 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Michael Bloomberg, $82 billion
getty
New York gained eight new billionaire residents over the past year, more than any other city on the list. Most are in the finance industry, including Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner and private equity titan Ramzi Musallam. Other NYC newcomers include the first NFT billionaires identified by Forbes: Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, the cofounders of the buzzy blockchain startup OpenSea. Despite the heightened competition, media magnate Michael Bloomberg remains the richest resident, accounting for some 13% of the city’s total billionaire wealth.
2.
Beijing: 83 billionaires
Since last year: -17
Total net worth: $310 billion (-$174.3 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Zhang Yiming, $50 billion
getty
Increased government scrutiny unleashed a world of pain for the super-rich in China’s capital, who have shed $174.3 billion from their collective net worth since 2021. The loss of 17 billionaires includes Kate Wang, the founder of Chinese vaping giant RLX Technology, and Will Wei Cheng, the CEO of ride-hailing firm Didi Global, whose fortunes both fell below the three-comma threshold. A rare winner amid the turmoil was Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok-owner ByteDance and Beijing’s richest resident, who is $14.4 billion richer than last year.
3.
Hong Kong: 68 billionaires
Since last year: -12
Total net worth: $304.6 billion (-$143.8 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Lee Shau Kee, $32.6 billion
getty
Another city with a dramatic drop in billionaires, Hong Kong lost a dozen amid a year of market tumult and strict Covid-19 protocols. The stalling tourism industry knocked casino billionaires Ina Chan and Lawrence Ho, as well as hotel magnate Zhao Tongtong, from the city’s super-rich ranks. Hong Kong also lost two billionaires, Shing-bor Tang and Lee Man Tat, who died in 2021.
4.
London: 66 billionaires
Since last year: +3
Total net worth: $324.1 billion (+$8 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Len Blavatnik, $32.5 billion
getty
London rose to No. 4 as it relaxed long-standing pandemic restrictions. Though it had a net gain of three new billionaires, the city actually welcomed six new three-comma club members, including the first Bulgarian and Estonian citizens ever named billionaires by Forbes, all of whom have their primary residences in London. Vlad Yatsenko, the chief technology officer of digital banking giant Revolut, and Denis Sverdlow, who founded the British electronic vehicle manufacturer Arrival, are other new billionaires who live in London.
5.
Shanghai: 61 billionaires
Since last year: -3
Total net worth: $187 billion (-$72.6 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Liu Yongxing, $13.2 billion
getty
Shanghai lost fewer billionaires than other Chinese cities but still saw its stable of super-rich residents drop, from 64 to 61. Xu Yi and Chen Rui, executives at Chinese media giant Bilibili, and Tony Zhao, the CEO of the Nasdaq-traded online video and communication platform Agora, are among the Shanghai-based billionaires who dropped off over the last year. Bucking the trend, Shanghai’s richest person, Liu Yongxing, the chairman of agriculture and chemicals firm East Hope Group, more than doubled his fortune to an estimated $13.2 billion.
6.
Shenzhen: 59 billionaires
Since last year: -9
Total net worth: $286.6 billion (-$128.7 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Ma Huateng, $37.2 billion
A hub for self-made billionaires, “China’s Silicon Valley” fell to No. 6 after losing nine billionaire residents over the past year. Three were investors in the vaping company Smoore International, whose share plummeted 64% as the Chinese government threatened a crackdown on electronic cigarettes. Shenzhen’s richest person, Tencent chairman and CEO Ma Huateng, also took a hit. The internet media tycoon’s fortune dropped by more than $28 billion since 2021.
7.
Moscow: 53 billionaires
Since last year: -26
Total net worth: $214.9 billion (-$205.7 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Vladimir Lisin, $18.4 billion
Moscow lost more billionaires than any other city on the list amid the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In fact, all but two living in Russia’s capital came away worse off than they were the year prior. Vladimir Lisin, the chairman of steel products manufacturer NLMK Group and Moscow’s richest person, shed about $8 billion of his personal wealth. Twenty-six others fell off the billionaires’ list altogether, including Oleg Tinkov, the founder of digital bank Tinkoff; the sanctioned billionaires Andrei Molchanov and Dmitry Pumpyanskiy; and Arkady Volozh, the founder of Yandex, the Russian equivalent to search engines like Google and Yahoo.
8.
Mumbai: 51 billionaires
Since last year: +3
Total net worth: $301.3 billion (+$36.3 billion vs. 2021)
Richest resident: Mukesh Ambani, $90.7 billion
The Indian metropolis held onto the No. 8 spot with a net gain of three billionaires compared to last year. Balanced by three dropoffs, Mumbai actually welcomed six new billionaires over the past year, including Falguni Nayar, who became India’s richest self-made woman, with an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion, after taking her beauty-and-fashion retailer Nykaa public in November. The city’s richest resident, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, single-handedly makes up for more than 30% of the collective net worth of Mumbai’s billionaires.
9.
San Francisco: 44 billionaires
Since last year: -4
Total net worth: $160.8 billion (-$29.2 billion vs. 2021)
Richest residents: Brian Chesky and Dustin Moskovitz, $11.5 billion
Dropping from the No. 8 spot, San Francisco is home to four fewer billionaires than last year. The city actually welcomed a stable of new ultra-rich entrepreneurs, such as Grammarly cofounder Max Lytvyn; and Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, the 26-and 25-year-old (respectively) cofounders of fintech startup Brex. But the plunging fortunes of others, such as Affirm cofounder Max Levchin, RingCentral Vlad Shmunis and Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise–each of whom dropped off the Forbes list–left the city with a net loss.
10.
Seoul: 38 billionaires
Since last year: +4
Total net worth: $108.3 billion (-$13.8 billion vs. 2021)
Richest residents: Kim Beom-su and Jay Y. Lee, $9.1 billion
The South Korean capital is back on the list for the first time since 2019. Seoul’s three billionaire newcomers (the fourth is a returnee) are all self-made: Covid-19 testing entrepreneur Cho Young-sik, fintech startup founder Lee Seung-Gun and gaming mogul Park Kwan-ho. Tied as the city’s richest residents are Kim Beom-su, the founder of Kako, South Korea’s biggest messaging app, and Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, who are worth an estimated $9.1 billion each.
MORE FROM FORBES BILLIONAIRES 2022
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2022/04/05/where-the-richest-live-the-cities-with-the-most-billionaires-2022/