Global Population of High Net Worth Individuals and their Wealth Hit New Highs

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While North America continues to rank first overall for HNWI wealth at US$16.2 trillion vs. Asia-Pacific’s US$15.8 trillion and Europe’s US$13.0 trillion, Asia-Pacific’s wealth growth (11 percent vs. North America’s nine percent and Europe’s 4.6 per cent) is expected to continue. In fact, Asia-Pacific is expected to take top spot for HNWI wealth before the end of 2015.   Asia-Pacific also expanded its HNWI population at the fastest rate globally (nine percent), pushing it past North America as the region with the most HNWIs at 4.69 million. North America’s HNWIs grew to 4.68 million (eight percent growth) and Europe’s grew to 4.0 million (up four percent).

“2014 was the sixth consecutive year of growth for the High Net Worth market, with robust equity returns and economic performance enabling wealth to grow by about seven percent, following double digit growth the year prior,” said George Lewis, Group Head, RBC Wealth Management & RBC Insurance. “Asia-Pacific led the growth in wealth this year and just edged out North America as the new leader in High Net Worth population. Looking ahead to the next few years, we expect Europe to be a large driver of HNWI wealth as the region recovers economically.” From a country-level perspective, China and the U.S. drove more than half (52 percent) of global HNWI population growth. India led the world in growth for both HNWI population (26 percent) and wealth (28 percent) due to strong equity market performance and the reduced cost of its substantial oil imports. China followed, with population and wealth growth rates of 17 percent and 19 percent, respectively, driven by GDP growth, increased exports and moderate equity market performance.   Strong growth in Asia-Pacific and North America contrasted with negative growth in Latin America – the only region with a decline in HNWI population (-2 percent) and wealth (-0.5 percent) in 2014, largely due to falling commodity prices and a resulting decline in equity markets.  In Europe HNWI population and wealth grew by roughly four percent due to weak economic performance and falling equity markets in most countries.

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[1] HNWIs are defined as those having investable assets of US$1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables.

[2] The Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management Global HNW Insights Survey 2015 is the largest and most in-depth survey of high net worth individuals ever conducted, surveying more than 5,000 HNWIs across 23 major wealth markets in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa and was conducted in January and February 2015.

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