Ranks of Ultrawealthy Surged in ’25

Number of those worth more than $30 million jumped by 14.4% last year

The ranks of the ultrawealthy hit a high in 2025 as the AI trade lifted global markets, according to a new report by wealth-intelligence firm Altrata.

The number of ultrawealthy individuals—those Altrata defines as having a net worth of more than $30 million— jumped by 14.4% last year to 556,850 people worldwide by the end of 2025. That’s the fastest pace of growth since 2017.

“What we’ve been seeing in the past decade is, on the whole, it’s been going up over time and it’s been growing quickly,” said Altrata Senior Director Maya Imberg, referring to the number of ultrawealthy people.

Lower inflation, resilient corporate earnings and enthusiasm for AI investment also bolstered the number of the ultrawealthy individuals and the value of their holdings in 2025.

One of the fastest-growing subgroups of the ultrawealthy in recent years has been centimillionaires, or those worth more than $100 million, mainly from founding or investing in rapidly-growing technology companies, according to Altrata. That echoes findings from other research showing that the world is get–ting wealthier, but with riches disproportionately accruing to the wealthiest.

One such study, the World Inequality Report 2026, found that the wealth of the richest b i l l i o n a i re s from 1995 to 2025 had grown at about 8.5% a year compared with about 3.4% a year for the bottom half of the global population.

The researchers said that by their count, around 60,000 people— the top 0.001% wealthiest in the world—are each worth at least $254 million.

“The population that can fit in a football stadium own three times more wealth than half of humanity combined,” said Ricardo Gómez-Carrera, lead author of the report, when it was released, referring to the w e a l t h i e s t 0.001% of the population. The Altrata report showed that those worth more than $30 million made up a little over 1% of the millionaire population—defined as those worth $1 million or more—but held 32% of that group’s wealth. Zooming out, the ultrawealthy made up 0.01% of the global adult population but held 11% of all private wealth held by individuals. Imberg said the Altrata numbers tell a story about the outsize returns possible from financial wealth, including from investments, from successful entrepreneurship and from ongoing intergenerational wealth transfers.

The U.S. remained home to more of the ultrawealthy than the rest of the top 10 countries combined, with 37% of the population. China and Germany came in second and third, respectively, with about 10% and 5%.

The New York metropolitan area continued to have the largest number of ultrawealthy residents, followed by the metropolitan areas of Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Portion of the ultrawealthy in the U.S. last year, the most of any country.