Asia has world's higest number of billionaires

There are 951 Asian billionaires, but the continent is also home to 60% of the world's population. Most of the wealth is still concentrated in North America. According to some forecasts, millionaires will double in China and India by 2026.

Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Surpassing all other regions of the world, Asia has 951 billionaires. This is according to an analysis by Nikkei Asia: most wealth is still concentrated in the United States, but the rise of the Asian continent is evident, with a steady annual increase in the percentage of the world's richest people.

Last month, India's Gautam Adani became the first Asian to stand on the podium of the world's wealthy. 

There are 777 billionaires in North America, 536 in Europe. A regional analysis shows that North America is home to .7 trillion, followed by Asia's .5 trillion and Europe's .4 trillion. Also in terms of percentage of population, it should be noted that the Asian continent is home to 60% of the world's population, unlike the United States with just over 4% and Europe with less than 10%.

Looking at the number of billionaires per country, the United States still remains in the lead with 719 very rich people. It is followed by China and India with 440 and 161 billionaires respectively. The 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have 114, followed by Taiwan with 45, South Korea with 28 and Japan with 27.

The number of billionaires began to grow in Europe during the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries and then multiplied in the United States thanks to subsequent technological innovations and globalisation. But today, emerging countries are producing more billionaires than Europe and the United States did in the 19th and 20th centuries: data from the Global Wealth Report published by Credit Suisse last month show that between 2000 and 2021, assets owned by the richest one per cent of the population increased 11-fold in India and 34-fold in China, compared to 3.6-fold and 1.2-fold in the United States and Japan.

"Rising property prices are the main driver of wealth accumulation by Asians," explained Soichiro Matsumoto, chief investment officer of Credit Suisse in Japan. However, the top spots are occupied by entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos with a large number of shares in various companies, so Asia "needs time to catch up" on the US. 

While the number of billionaires has dropped in the last six months (with minus 126 Asians and minus 27 Americans), Credit Suisse has instead predicted that the number of millionaires will double in China and India by 2026 (compared to 2021) due to increased domestic demand and infrastructure development.