For the first time in seven years, New York City has lost its title as the world’s billionaire capital. In 2020, the Big Apple was displaced by Beijing which recorded a net gain of 33 billionaires. Beijing is now in top spot with 100 individuals worth a billion dollars or more, narrowly ahead of New York’s 99.
The findings come from the 2021 Forbes World’s Billionaires list which shows that a quarter of its 2,755 members live in just 10 cities with more than 10 percent resident in just four Chinese metropolises. Along with Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou also make the list of the world’s top-10 billionaire capitals. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is also present on the list and it comes third with 80 billionaires.
Even though New York is in second place, the collective worth of its billionaire population amounts to $560.5 billion, beating Beijing’s collective $484.3 billion. Zhang Yiming is the richest resident in the Chinese capital with a net worth of $35.6 billion while Michael Bloomberg is New York’s wealthiest inhabitant with a $59 billion fortune.
This chart shows the number of billionaires living in cities in 2020.
