Mumbai is currently the Asian city with the most number of billionaires, with 92 billionaires overtaking Beijing’s population of 91 according to data from the Hurun Research Institute.
When Rupert Hoogewerf, a 53-year-old Luxembourger and former consultant at Arthur Andersen, settled in Shanghai in 1999, he set out to establish a research company that would rank and record billionaires across the globe. Since then, Hurun Research Institute—which adopts his Chinese name “Hu Run” — has become a leading source of information on all things ultra-rich for more than two decades, as Philippe Escande reports for Le Monde. Among this pertinent data is Hurun’s annual “Global Rich List,” which among other things, ranks cities with the most number of billionaires. The 2024 Global Rich List has ranked Mumbai as first before Beijing among the Asian cities.
According to the list, Mumbai has surpassed the Chinese city by one, with a total of 92 billionaires, while Beijing has a total of 91. In total, there are 3,279 billionaires in the world today, a five percent increase compared to last year, according to Hurun’s key findings.
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India’s Wealth Boom
India’s economy is one of the fastest growing ones in the world, with a GDP growth of 8.4 percent during the fourth quarter of 2023, reports Koustav Das of India Today. Among the country’s billionaires is the richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani, who holds a net worth of around $116.5 billion as the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires list.
Shilpy Bisht of News18 adds that the cumulative wealth of India’s billionaires has reached $1 trillion, with the country adding 94 new billionaires to their roster each year. With a large population of tycoons and minds focused on the future of technology (specifically Artificial Intelligence), the country continues to be a formidable economic force.
That said, New York City and London rank first and second among the richest cities globally, with the former having 119 billionaires and the latter having 97.
China’s Power
China has experienced some setbacks, as it lost 155 billionaires this 2024 (so far), Hurun’s data adds. “China had a bad year,” its research report notes. “Wealth creation in China has gone through deep changes these last few years, with the wealth of billionaires from real estate and renewables down.”
This isn’t to say that the East Asian country is falling behind: though its city rankings haven’t surpassed Mumbai, on a larger scale, China still has more billionaires than India overall. In fact, according to Hurun’s recent data, China is still the world capital for the ultra-rich, with 814 billionaires. The U.S. comes in second with 800 billionaires. What’s more, the country has added a total of 120 new billionaires to its list despite these struggles.
Banner photo by Previn Samuel via Unsplash.
