Luxury settlements identified: Top 20 cities boasting the highest net worth globally - Prosperity finds its abode: The Top 20 Richest Cities Globally Unveiled
In a recent report by the British consulting firm Henley & Partners, New York City and Singapore have been identified as the cities with the highest number of billionaires in 2025.
New York City, with its financial industry, high-end real estate, and cultural significance, is home to 66 billionaires, making it the richest city worldwide by billionaire count. Singapore, with 30 billionaires, has become an increasingly popular destination for wealthy individuals due to factors such as safety, capital gains tax exemption, and pro-business regulations.
While the report primarily focuses on millionaire populations for several cities, the explicit billionaire numbers provided highlight New York City and Singapore prominently. Other cities like the Bay Area, Tokyo, and Chicago are significant millionaire hubs, but their billionaire counts are not specified in these sources.
According to the report, Mumbai and Delhi, India, have 50 billionaires each. However, the growth rate of wealth is given more weight than the number of millionaires in the calculation, and it's unclear whether many residents of these cities will benefit from the wealth of the few billionaires.
As of last year, the number of billionaires worldwide increased by 141 to 2781. Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are the top three billionaires globally, but the report does not provide any information on the income distribution or poverty levels in the cities mentioned. Furthermore, it does not discuss any strategies or solutions to address wealth inequality in these cities.
Since 2001, the number of billionaires has almost sextupled, but the report does not discuss any other factors that contribute to a city's wealth besides the number of billionaires. Economic institutes like GfK in Germany collect data on the available income of residents to measure the wealth of a city, but this data was not provided for the cities mentioned in the report.
In conclusion, New York City leads with the highest number of billionaires, followed by Singapore among the top cities mentioned by Henley & Partners in their 2025 wealth reports. However, the report raises questions about the correlation between the number of billionaires and prosperity for many people, as shown by India. It also highlights the need for further discussion on income distribution, poverty levels, and strategies to address wealth inequality in these cities.
In light of the report by Henley & Partners, the employment policy and wealth-management opportunities in both New York City and Singapore could attract investors due to their high concentration of billionaires. Furthermore, the community and employment policies in these cities should consider addressing the wealth inequality that is known to exist, with the aim of benefiting a larger segment of the population.
