Asia minted the most billionaires last year

Written by: Poppy Skinner Created: 20 July 2020

That’s right, we were top of the list

According to a new report from data firm Wealth-X, Asia topped the Billionaire Census 2020 for minting the most billionaires in 2019. Growing by 12% over the year, billionaire status individuals rose from 677 to 758 with a cumulative wealth of $2.4 trillion.

Bouncing back from the market fluctuations that affected the uber-wealthy in 2018, Asia accounts for 26.8% of the global billionaire population, a statistic that puts it third behind the global leader of Europe in at number one with 30% or 847 billionaires and North America in second, home to 834 billionaires with 29.5% and a wealth pool of $3.5 trillion.

“This reflects robust equity gains despite softening economic growth, amid disruption to regional trade from U.S.-China tensions; currency depreciation against the U.S. dollar and a downturn in the global consumer electronics cycle.” said Maya Imberg, senior director of thought leadership and analytics at Wealth-X.

So where did the most billionaires come from in 2019? Well, it won’t come as much of a surprise to hear that most of Asia’s billionaire growth was in China, which is now home to an impressive 342 billionaires, a growth of 20% year on year. It’s also worth noting that China has the second most billionaires in the world after the US. When it comes to second and third place in Asia, India sits in at number two with 87 billionaires and Singapore at three with a 15% increase of billionaires hitting 45.

The study also broke down the geographies of these billionaires, citing Hong Kong’s 97 billionaires as the city with the most billionaires in Asia, Beijing was second thanks to 57 billionaires, Singapore next with 45, then Schenzen and their 39 billionaires, Mumbai with 38, Hangzhou with 32 and Tokyo with 15. Demographically speaking, only 12% of the billionaires were female and less than 10% were under 50 with the vast majority coming from banking, finance, industrial or real estate industries.

Written by: Poppy Skinner

Poppy covers a wide range of topics at Billionaire, having spent the past 13 years at companies including Singapore Tatler, Her World Plus and Harpers Bazaar UK. She has a passion for fashion, jewellery and travel as well as an avaricious fascination with crime novels. Follow her at poppypskinner on Instagram.