By Uglobal Staff
The population of global high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) is continuing to grow globally despite the pandemic, according to a new report. This may in turn lead to a shot in the arm for the global investment immigration industry that relies heavily on the HNWIs for its own growth.
The HNW1 population has increased by an overall 6% during the pandemic era following massive stock market gains and global bailout packages that led to a 7.6% bump in HNW1s wealth in 2020, according to a new World Wealth Report 2021 by the Capgemini Research Institute.
The ultra- HNWI population within the total HNWI population also grew by 9.6% while in terms of wealth, it increased by 9.1%, it said.
What are the new global HNWI markets
North America has topped the HNWI growth list where the percentage change from 2019 to 2020 in HNWI population was 10.7% while in terms of wealth, it was boosted by 11.9% in 2020. The Asia-Pacific region came in next with the most HNWI population and wealth gains in 2020 compared with 2019, followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa, the report noted.
Latin America was the only region where the percentage change from 2019 to 2020 in terms of HNWI population was a negative 4% while financial wealth gains were just 0.5% in 2020 compared with 2019.
The 12.3% increase in the U.S. HNWI wealth growth in 2020 largely came on the backs of the $2 trillion government sanctioned stimulus package as well as soaring tech stocks, it said.
In the Asia-Pacific region, China registered 13.5% in HNWI wealth growth; Hong Kong came in second with 12.1% and South Korea third with 9.2% growth. India's population of HNWI increased by 5.9%; Japan and Singapore saw their HNWI growth slow down.
In Europe, there was a slow HNWI population growth, for example Germany saw 4.7% growth, while the U.K.’s HNWI population ended up going down by 3% post-pandemic, the report pointed out.
In the Middle East, Iran saw its HNWI population grow by 21.6% while its HNWI wealth also saw a huge boost of 24.3% in 2020; in comparison, the gulf state of the UAE's HNWI population grew by just 3.4% while wealth gains there registered 5.3%.
The impact of the pandemic on the HNWI population
It appears that the pandemic left its most severe impact on Latin America, both in terms of HNWI population, which went down 4%, and HNWI wealth, which grew only slightly by 0.5%.
Around 63% of global HNWI population remains concentrated in just four countries: the U.S., Japan, Germany and China; Among the countries to watch out for are Iran, which is now ranked 14, and Brazil, which slid down to 22nd spot in the top 25 list of countries with most HNWIs, the report added.
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