Countries with the highest percentage of millionaires, ranked (2024)

For many of us, having millions in the bank is a dream – but for some lucky individuals, that financial fantasy is a reality.

Around 62.5million people (1% of the world's population)boast at least seven figures in their bank account, and that number could be set to soar to over 87million by 2024.But which nations boast the most super-rich residents?

Read onto discover which countries are home to the highest percentage of millionaires intheir adult population,according to figures from Credit Suisse'slatestGlobal Wealth Report. All dollar values in US dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Spain is home to 2% of the world's wealthiest people, includingfashion mogul Amancio Ortega (shown here with daughter Marta).

The co-founder of high street fashionchain Zara hasa staggering $53.7billion (£48.7bn) fortune according toForbes, making him the richest man in Spain.

However, his net worth has plummeted from an all-time high of $77 billion (£69.8bn) last year.

Like Spain, South Korea is home to around2% of the world’s wealthiest residents, boasting1,289,917 millionaires.

In 2021, 3% of Korean adultshad at least seven figures in their bank account, up from 1.8% in 2015.

Between 2020 and 2021, the median wealth per adult increased slightly from $91,232 (£82.6k) to $93,141 (£83.5k) inSouth Korea.

Seoul's Gangnam district (pictured) is one of the richest in the city and has seen high levels of investment since the 1980s.

According to The Korea Times, propertyprices in the district have risen 84 times in the last 40 years, while comparable real estate prices elsewhere in the country have risen just five times over a similar period.

The oil-rich Kuwait was home to 100,746 millionaires in 2021.

This represents a stark increase from 2020, when 78,331 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) counted the nation as home.

Kuwait has a very small population of around 4.2 million people.

It's perhaps unsurprising, then, that its population of billionaires boasts the most wealth as a percentage of total GDP, according to the Elite Quality Index of 2022.

In 2021, 3,365,616millionaires lived in Japan, which is the third-highest total after the US and China.

That means that 3.2% of the adult population holds millionairestatus, with 5% of the world’s wealthiest people livingin the Asian nation.

Looking beyond its millionaire population, Japan has a very even wealth distribution.

The median wealth per adult in Japan is $119,999(£108.7k), while 89% of the population isworth at least $10,000 (£7,345) according to recent data fromStatista.

Last year, 203,623 Israelis had more than $1 million in the bank, which equates to around 3.6% of the country's adult population.

The median wealth per adult was $92,426(£83.7k), an impressive increase from $82,177 (£74.4k) in 2020.

The recent influx of Russian billionaires is likely to skew Israel's data for 2022.

According to Forbes, Israeli passports are one ofthe most popular second passports among Russia'ssuper-rich. Many HNWIs have chosento emigrate to Israel in the wake of the Ukrainian war.

Another country withlow wealth disparity, Austria was home to 271,014 millionaires in 2020. That accounts for 3.7% of the adult population, an increase of 1% since2015.

Austria's2020 GDP fell by 6.6% due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the median wealth per adult had reached $91,830 (£67.5k) by the end of the year, an increase of $8,820 (£6.5k) from 2019.

This has since declined again, with Credit Suisse reporting that Austrian adults had a median wealth of$75,075 (£68k) last year.

Germany has a remarkable 2,683,056 millionaires, which amounts to 3.9% of the adult population and 4% of global HNWIs.

Between 2020and 2021,the country lost more than 140,000 millionaires, butit does still boast the third-highest number ofultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the world.

UHNWIs are defined as adults worth more than$30 million(£26.5m).

Among Germany's 9,720 UHNWIs are tyre tycoons Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann and her son Georg F. W. Schaeffler (pictured).

They own Schaeffler Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of rolling bearings and machine components, and have a combined net worth of around $7.4billion (£6.7bn).

Boasting 869,210millionaires, 1% of the world’s wealthiest call Taiwan home.

That means that of the nation's 23.5 million citizens, 4.4% of adults had a bank balance of at least seven figures in 2021.

The median wealth per adult was $91,591 (£83k) in Ireland in 2021, an increase from $89,349 (£81k) in 2020.

With a totalpopulation of around 4.9 million people, just under 5% of Irish adultsare millionaires.

The country is also home to nine billionaires, who reportedly enjoy a combined wealth of $54.8 billion (£49.8bn).

According to the Irish Independent's Political Rich Listlast year, 68 of Ireland's millionaires worked for the Irish government.

Between them, these individuals possess a collective fortune worth€181 million ($209.8m/£154.8m).

From the pandemic to Brexit, the UK has faced a number of hardships in recent times that have thrown many people into financial uncertainty.

But for its richest citizens, business is brisk. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of HNWIs in the UK increased from 2,583,739 to 2,849,344, meaning that around 5.3%of the nation's adult population is now part of the world's wealthiest 1%.

In 2021, the median wealth per adult in the UK was $141,552 (£128.3), an increase of around $9,500 (£8.6k) since2020.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List 2022, the wealthiest residents are businessmen brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who are worth a combined £28.472 billion ($31.4bn).

Also in the British billionaire club is the British-American businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik (pictured left), who is currently the UK's fourth-richest person thanks to his net worth of £20billion ($22bn).

Blavatnik reportedly donated to Donald Trump's private legal defence fund in 2017.

In Norway last year, 5.6% of adults had at least $1 million in the million, which equates to 236,023 people.

That's a modest increase from 2020, when 228,529 Norwegians were part of the exclusive millionaire's club.

The Scandinavian country boasts a relatively highmedian wealth per adult, with the figure averaging at $132,482 (£120.2k).

Along with its Nordic neighbours, it consistently ranks among the top 10 happiest countries in the world. According to the World Happiness Report, Norway is currently the eighth happiest nation globally.

In 2021France had 2,796,334millionaires, the equivalent of 5.6% of the adultpopulation.

Between 2020and 2021, the number of millionaires in the country actually fell fractionally from 2,822,428.

However, Credit Suisse expectsthis figure to increase again, and estimate the figure will be closed to four millionby 2026.

France is home to around5% of the world’s millionaires.

Among them isBernard Arnault (pictured), who is ranked third onForbes' list of the planet's wealthiest people, boasting a family fortune of $144.8billion (£131.5bn) net worth.

He oversees LMVH, an empire of around 70luxury brands that include Louis Vuitton, Moët, and Tiffany & Co.

In 2021, around 6% of Singapore's population were millionaires, which is 298,650people.

The city-state is the second smallest country in Asia according to World Atlas. Despite its modest dimensions, it still manages to have a relatively high rate of wealth inequality.

Median wealth per adult was $93,133(£84.5k) last year but those at the top have far deeper pockets.

The richest 1% of Singaporeans accounted for a whopping 34.5% of the country's wealth by the end of2021, with a small number of very high net-worth individuals (VHNWIs) skewing the national average.

Belgium, whose capital city Brussels is often considered to bethe heart of Europe,boasts 588,968millionaires.

That means 6.5% of the country's adult residents had millionaire status in 2021, which is almost twice as many as 2015's 3.4%.

Belgium wash*t hard by the pandemic and its GDP fell by6.3%, the worst decline it had seen since World War II.

Despite this, the average wealth of its citizens has increased.The median wealth per adult was $230,550 (£169.4k)in 2020, a$35,330 (£25.9k)increase from 2019.

In 2021, this figure rose to $267,887 (£242.8k).

Canada is home to 2,291,281millionaires, which accounts for 4% of the world’s wealthiest people.

Overall, the number of millionaires in Canada increased from 1,861,642between 2020and 2021. This means thataround 7.3% of the Canadian population currently has at least $1 million in the bank, with many havingconsiderably more.

In fact, 5,507 Canadians wereworth at least $50 million in 2021, an increase from 3,896 the year before.

This includes billionaire real estate mogul Carlo Fidani (pictured), whose net worth is$3.9billion (£3.5bn) according toForbes.

Sweden is home to 1% of all the world's millionaires. Ofits population of 7.8 million adults, 610,214 people were recorded as being millionaires in 2021.

This includes the country’s richest person, businessman Stefan Persson (pictured left with Lady Gaga), who has a net worth of $14.1billion (£12.7bn) according to Forbes. His father founded fast-fashion giant H&M in 1947.

Denmark was home to 384,828 millionaires in 2021. With a population of around 4.5million adults, that means that a whopping 8.5% of Danes have at least $1 millionto their name.

That’s a notable increase from 3.4% in 2015 and well above the 1% global average.

Despite this, Denmark enjoys one of the lowest levels of wealth disparity in the world and the country's average incomeactually rose in 2020.

The mediannet worth of an adult in the country was $165,620 (£121.7k)in 2020, marking an increase of $16,980(£12.5k) from 2019. This figure rose again to $171,175 (£155k) last year.

Partly fuelled by currency appreciation against the US dollar, the Netherlands boasts 1,148,740millionaires. That means 8.5% of the adultpopulation now belongs to the wealthiest 1% club.

Back in 2020, 7.7% of adults had more than $1 million in the bank– but while the percentage has increased, the numbers haven't. There were 1,204,581 millionaires in the Netherlands that year.

The Netherlands is home to 2% of the world's millionaires, with Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken (pictured), one of the world's richest women, among them.

According to Forbes,she has a net worth of $14.2 billion (£12.8bn) dueto her 23% stake in beer giant Heineken.

New Zealand's adult population includes 347,478 millionaires.

After the country's GDP fell by 2.1% in 2020, it bounced back by an impressive 5.6% last year. The number of HNWIs has grown with it, increasing by almost 100,000 since 2020.

The nation may boast a high number of millionaires but its levels of wealth inequality are still relatively low.

At 53%, more than half of New Zealand's adults have between $100,000 (£90.6k) and $1 million.

Only a handful of other countries – Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and neighbouring Australia – have a higher percentage of adults in this income range.

When it comes to the super-rich, nowhere comes close to America. In 2021, it was home to a whopping 24,480,000 millionaires, accounting for 9.7% of the adult population.

Incredibly, 1,730,000 Americans reachedmillionaire status for the first time in 2020 and the trend has continued, with the wealthygetting richer more rapidly than ever before.

The US is home to an incredible 39% of the world's millionaires and has the most members of the top 1% global wealth group.

These include billionaires such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (pictured).Gates and Buffett founded The Giving Pledge in 2010, a campaign that encourages the super-wealthy to donate the majority of their wealth to good causes.

In recent years, Hong Kong has seen an influx of wealthy businesses and HNWIs from China.

In aBloombergnews piecefrom 2019, arelationship manager at Shanghai-based private wealth manager Jupai Holdings Ltd revealed thatHong Kong was the most popular destination for over 90% of his Chinese clients who were looking to move their wealth overseas.

This was largely dueto the city's proximity, as well as the ease of opening bank accounts there.

Australia counted a staggering 2,176,868 millionaires in 2021, meaning that11.2% of the adult population is an HNWI.

That's an increase of 372,000 from 2020, when 9.4% of Aussie adults were millionaires. The median wealth of an adult is $273,903(£244.9k), which is the third-highest of any country mentioned in the Global Wealth Report.

A total of 4% of the world's wealthy elite live Down Under.

Amongthem isGina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person (pictured), whobuilt her$14.8 billion (£13.1bn) fortune by reviving her father's mining firm.

According to Credit Suisse, 13.5% of Icelandic adults have more than $1 million in the bank.

This translates to 34,601 people, marking a significant increase from 26,191 in 2020.

And Iceland's HNWI population is only set to get bigger.

Credit Suisse predicts that 66,662 millionaires will call the country home by 2026, which would mark a growth rate of around 92.6% over the next four years.

Luxembourg might be one of the smallest countries in Europe but it still boasts the second-highest percentage of millionaires in the world.

According to Credit Suisse, 81,915 people have more than $1 million in the sovereign state, which works out to an amazing 16.2% of the adult population.

After Iceland, Luxembourg has the second-highest median wealth per capita, clocking inat $350,271 (£311.8k).

The nation has long been a popular tax haven for companies and HNWIs alike, although it's been trying to shake off this reputation since an inquiry in 2014 revealed that 300 multinational companies had been granted secretive tax reductions in the country.

Home to 1,152,000 millionaires in 2021, Switzerland accounts for around 2% of the world's HNWIs.

That's quite a feat for a country that accounts for just0.1% of the world's population – and is partly due to the country's generous tax laws, which encourage the super-rich to relocate.

Although Credit Suisse has predicted that the number of millionaires in Switzerland will increase to 1,591,000 by 2026, however,the nation has still seen a decline in its UHNWIs since last year.

Data shows that 120 people with fortunes of $100 million (£89m) or more chose to leave the country between 2020 and 2021.

Now discoverwhich colleges and universities have produced the most millionaires.