For the average person, $30 million is a lot of money—but for the ultra-high-net-worth individual (UHNWI), that’s the bare minimum nowadays.
That’s because the number of individuals with more than $30 million in assets—the generally accepted threshold for the “ultra-high-net-worth individuals”— grew from 157,000 in 2016 to 220,000 in 2023, according to data from Capgemini. That's a jump of nearly 28% in just seven years.
Now, with so many more multimillionaires milling around, outbidding one another on priceless art and decked-out yachts, the actual bar for what’s considered “wealthy” is creeping ever upward, rapidly tacking on extra zeroes.
Many of the new self-made UHNWIs of today “built their wealth primarily through entrepreneurship or executive roles in the technology sector,” Elias Ghanem, the global head of Capgemini’s Research Institute for Financial Services, told Fortune.
How does that increased baseline for what’s considered “wealthy” change behavior, habits or desires among the ultra-rich? UHNWIs are “primarily focused on wealth growth,” Ghanem said. “In contrast, the primary objective for the rest of the HNWI segment remains around wealth preservation.”
The difference is because UHNWIs know they can weather short-term market fluctuations—thanks to their “long-term investment horizons and substantial discretionary wealth.” As a result, Ghanem said, their risk tolerance skews higher.
The rich are getting richer—here’s why
Inflation, without a doubt, has made multi-millionaire status both more ubiquitous and further out of reach. So has the explosion of avenues—crypto, startups, tech, entrepreneurship, even influencing—via which businesspeople can amass a fortune.
Capgemini’s data shows the number of UHNWIs in North America grew by 7.3% last year, owing to “economic resilience, cooling inflationary pressures, and a US equity market rally,” Ghanem said.
“A slew” of U.S. government-led spending initiatives aimed at boosting onshore manufacturing have also led to capital growth, Ghanem added. He name-checked the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—both announced in 2022—as two major contributors.
The CHIPS Act led to over $230 billion in private-sector spending for the semiconductor manufacturing industry; the Inflation Reduction Act led to $201 billion in construction spending. At the same time, the U.S.’s GDP—which grew last year at a much larger rate than expected, 3.3% annualized—is another major factor. Each of these forces led to “the biggest economic revolution in generations” and a watershed of new UHNWIs whose companies—or investments—were part of the boom.
Shifting parameters
$30 million, for most working people, would no doubt make for an easy, luxurious lifestyle—but among the cream of the crop, that figure is “just the starting point,” David Gibson-Moore, the president of consultancy Gulf Analytica, told the Financial Times. “The ultra-rich today are being measured by new standards, with some financial commentators now suggesting $100 million is the new yardstick for anyone who wants to keep their head held high at private equity parties.”
According to Knight Frank’s 2024 Wealth Report, “the robust performance of the US economy and a sharp uptick in equity markets” spurred global wealth creation, which led to—by the end of 2023—4.2% more UHNWIs than a year earlier, for a total of just over 626,600 around the world.
North America, naturally, led the growth, but Europe nonetheless is home to the wealthiest one-percenters, Knight Frank found. Rich people have never been such a large group—but breaking in has never been more of an uphill battle, with some experts saying it now takes $50 or $100 million in assets to join the club.
Passion projects for the richest of the rich
The number of wealthy individuals globally are set to rise by another 28% or so over the next four years, Knight Frank predicted in its report, but the rate of expansion will be “noticeably slower” than in the five-year period between 2018 and 2023, mainly owing to the impacts of inflation.
“This expanding cohort of wealthy individuals looks favorably on real estate,” Knight Frank went on. “Almost a fifth of UHNWIs plan to invest in commercial real estate this year, while more than a fifth are planning to buy residential. Growth over the forecast period provides various opportunities for investors, particularly developers able to deliver property that suits the shifting tastes of the newly minted.”
Almost all (91%) of UHNWIs gravitate towards passion investments, Capgemini research has found, like luxury real estate, wine, collectibles, and art. “The growing appetite for luxury second homes has pushed real-estate advice into the top five of UHNWIs’ service requirements when deciding to select a wealth management firm,” Ghanem added.
