The richest cities in the world in 2025, ranked
One Australian city makes the cut, meanwhile three others spread out in the top 50
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NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED in who occupies the top ten richest cities in the world. The real battle ground happens for the cities that placed 11 to 50, vying for the gleaming placard used by real estate companies and financial institutions as one of the richest cities in the world.
Still, what the top ten display is a stable position in the global economy for the next decade. Since joining the ranks in 2023, Sydney has kept its place in the six to ten range, with analysts projecting our largest city to breach the top five by 2040. (Read that as good or bad, it depends who you ask.) Melbourne isn’t too far behind either in 16th place, followed by Brisbane in a lagging 34th, and then Perth in 43rd. With four of our biggest cities in the top 50, it might explain some of our current woes: competitive real estate and foreign investment.
Here, using data published by consulting firm Henley & Partners, we break down who gets to call themselves the richest cities in the world, as well as break down what’s changed, and how many high-net-worth-individuals moved in (or left).
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The richest Australians of 2025, ranked
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10. Chicago, USA
The windy city makes the cut this year in tenth, taking Beijing’s spot from 2024. In terms of what brought it up to the top ten from twelfth last year, nothing dazzling: a stronger Chicago Mercantile Exchange, multi-industry economy, and a two per cent growth of millionaires moving to its wealthy Gold Coast and Lincoln Park.
No. of millionaires: 127,100
No. of billionaires: 22
9. Sydney, Australia
Our proud harbourside city has sustained a well-footed positioning in the second half of the top ten for a while: coming tenth in 2023, eighth in 2024, and pushed back to ninth this year. Exactly why our largest city makes the top ten also explains many of our current woes: competitive real estate and foreign investment. Our source for the ranking projects Sydney to enter the top five by 2040.
No. of millionaires: 152,900
No. of billionaires: 22
8. Hong Kong
Hong Kong traded spots with Sydney this year in the top ten richest cities. The densely populated city also boasts the largest number of billionaires in the second half of the top ten. Even with no inheritance tax in the city, one of the seemingly untouchable business dynasties, the Chengs (worth US$19.5 billion), has found itself in crisis as of late.
No. of millionaires: 154,900
No. of billionaires: 40
7. Paris, France
Sweet, sweet Paree. The French capital retains its spot in seventh place from last year, seeing a stable growth margin in millionaires of five per cent year-on-year. Lot’s happening in its largest industry, though: luxury. Two of the world’s largest luxury conglomerates, LVMH and Kering, which are based in the city, have now settled the creative director dust-storm that wrought through their fashion houses. With a new look to luxury going down the runways in September with the womenswear spring/summer 2026 collection, the 2025 class of luxury fashion might just reinvigorate the luxury spending they hoped for.
No. of millionaires: 160,100
No. of billionaires: 22
6. London, UK
London is the only city on the list this year to see a decline in number of millionaire growth by negative four per cent. Don’t feel bad for them, though. Sixth place is where we hit the big leagues now, jumping by a considerable margin in high-net-worth-individuals from Paris in seventh.
No. of millionaires: 215,700
No. of billionaires: 33
5. Los Angeles, USA
Los Angeles and London have been dancing around each other from quite sometime, swapping places for a number of years. The City of Angels does have the upper hand on its number of billionaires, which you can guess includes a number of the Kardashian sisters. The centre of the entertainment, music, and film industries, you could put a face to much of the city’s wealth.
No. of millionaires: 220,600
No. of billionaires: 45
4. Singapore
Spoiler: this is the point of the list where it gets less exciting. The cities in the top four have kept their same positions on the list from last year, seeing near identical levels of growth year-on-year. In other words, these are the decade’s power centres. The island state of Singapore shares many similarities with Hong Kong, both in industries as well as the families who run them (often connected by marriage). Surprisingly, given its higher ranking compared to Hong Kong, Singapore doesn’t have the most billionaires in Asia.
No. of millionaires: 242,400
No. of billionaires: 30
3. Tokyo, Japan
Why would Tokyo, who has the lowest amount of billionaires to any city on the list, rank third? Its position on the ladder should instead be focused on its number of high-net-worth-individuals, which is more representative. In the Japanese capital, with a robust middle class, wealth is evenly distributed amongst the population, who work in the country’s highly-productive economy of technology, finance and manufacturing.
No. of millionaires: 292,300
No. of billionaires: 18
2. The Bay Area, USA
If you watched Sirens, the latest wealth-porn series to hit Netflix, Julianne Moore’s character, Kiki, a former lawyer who married up, says that she’s from the Bay Area, when in reality she reveals that she’s from an “armpit called Fresno”. 179 miles from that so-called armpit, what Kiki is associating herself with new world wealth: Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Facebook (Meta), Google (Alphabet), HP, Intel, Linkedin, and the like. Encompassing the City of San Fransisco and Silicon Valley, the cooly said Bay Area boasts the most billionaires in the world with a whopping 82 in residence.
No. of millionaires: 342,400
No. of billionaires: 82
1. New York City, USA
Was this a surprise? Not really. Home to the New York Stock Exchange and where Succession was filmed, the Big Apple – stretching its five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island – is a rich person’s playground. Or more morbidly, its top spot denotes that you can only live this comfortably in the largest city in the US if you’re one of the 818 centi-millionaires (a net worth of US$100 million or more).
No. of millionaires: 384,500
No. of billionaires: 66
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