Record number of 'new millionaires' in 2025

AFP | Zurich, Switzerland

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Global personal wealth surged in 2025, with a record number of new millionaires, Swiss bank UBS said yesterday.

Last year saw nearly one million people worldwide become US dollar millionaires -- the equivalent of 2,600 people a day, according to the bank’s estimates.

The United States accounted for almost half of new millionaires in 2025, adding more than 440,000 individuals, followed by China, Japan, Germany, Britain and France, which each count more than two million millionaires in total.

Switzerland’s biggest bank, which is among the world’s largest wealth managers, produces the annual UBS Global Wealth Report, which assesses personal wealth trends.

It covers all financial and non-financial assets, primarily property, minus debts, with asset values converted into dollars.

“The real story is one of continued expansion: more people moving up the wealth ladder,” the report said.

“The gains... point to a world that kept building wealth, deepening its affluent population and extending a long-running upward trend.”

UBS said that in 2025, global personal wealth rose by 10.8% in dollar terms, significantly outpacing growth seen in 2024 (4.6%) and 2023 (4.2%).

Wealth growth was strongest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at 17.5% -- helped by a weaker dollar -- followed by the Americas at 8.5%. Asia-Pacific recorded growth of 5.9%.

Over half of global personal wealth remains concentrated in the United States and mainland China combined.

Since 2020, South Korea has led growth in real average wealth per adult across the 56 analysed markets, with gains above 50%. There have been increases above 25% in Croatia, Norway, Latvia, Taiwan and Bulgaria.