Investment Opportunities. The world’s wealthiest individuals shape our cities as much as cities shape wealth creation. This symbiotic relationship drives a clear pattern: capital follows talent, talent follows opportunity, and opportunity clusters in urban centers that understand this dynamic. Our wealth report 2025 https://citizenshiphubs.com/worlds-wealthiest-cities-report/ reveals not just where wealth resides, but how it moves and multiplies across global cities.
Leaders and rising stars
The USA dominates the Top 50 list with 11 cities, led by New York City with 384,500 millionaires, though the Bay Area which includes the city of San Francisco and Silicon Valley now hosts more billionaires and continues to thrive as the epicenter of technological wealth creation. Los Angeles has surpassed London, pushing the UK capital down to 6th place in our rankings. This continues London’s multi-year decline, while Dubai has climbed from 21st to 18th place, confirming its rising status as a wealth magnet.
China’s wealth landscape reveals a telling shift — tech hubs Shenzhen and Hangzhou are significantly outperforming traditional centers Beijing and Shanghai in wealth growth. Meanwhile, Lisbon has entered the Top 50 for the first time, while Auckland has dropped out completely, highlighting Europe’s resilience amid Oceania’s previously strong presence.
In Japan, the Osaka–Kyoto–Kobe region is now the country’s fastest growing wealth center. This is primarily driven by its technology sector, hosting giants like Kyocera, Nintendo, Panasonic, and Rohm. The area’s beautiful architecture, gardens, and world-class golf courses add to its appeal, demonstrating how secondary urban centers can flourish when they develop distinctive value propositions.
A clear pattern emerges in 2025: cities that blend investment freedom with lifestyle dividends are winning the competition for mobile capital. These urban centers share common DNA — robust legal frameworks, sophisticated financial infrastructure, and perhaps most critically, investment migration programs that welcome global talent and capital.
A gateway to the world’s wealth hubs
Seven of the top 10 wealthiest cities are in countries with residence by investment programs,{Residence By Investment – Harley & Associates} creating direct pathways for entrepreneurs and investors seeking access to these wealth hubs. These programs offer concrete benefits well beyond the opportunity to relocate — they provide business opportunities, tax efficiency, and security in uncertain times.
The US EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa https://citizenshiphubs.com/us-eb-5-visa/ requires an investment of USD 800,000 in commercial enterprises that create at least 10 jobs. This grants investors and their families permanent residence and a path to citizenship, with access to five of the Top 20 wealthiest cities: New York (1st), the Bay Area (2nd with 342,400 resident millionaires), Los Angeles (5th with 220,600), Chicago (10th with 127,100), and Houston (17th with 81,800). American cities dominate our rankings not just in raw numbers, but through their capacity to regenerate wealth across sectors.
Singapore, ranking 4th globally with 242,400 millionaires living on this small, diamond-shaped island after a 62% surge in its high-net-worth individual population over the past decade, offers the Singapore investment program through three pathways: investing SGD 10 million in a local business, investing SGD 25 million in a venture capital fund, or establishing a family office with SGD 200 million in assets under management. The dynamic city-state attracted a net inflow of approximately 3,500 millionaires in 2024 alone. Its dense network of family offices co-exists with one of Asia’s most sophisticated crypto frameworks, making it particularly appealing to next-generation entrepreneurs.
London, despite dropping to 6th place with 215,700 high-net-worth individuals calling it their home, remains accessible through the UK Innovator Founder Program Rather than passive investment, this requires establishing an innovative, scaling business in the UK. This program suits entrepreneurs looking to tap into London’s vast capital markets and global connections, leveraging the city’s position as a crucible of entrepreneurial activity despite Brexit turbulence.
Hong Kong (8th with 154,900 millionaires in residence) offers its Capital Investment Entrant Program requiring HKD 30 million maintained for seven years, plus entrepreneur options under its General Employment Policy for those establishing start-ups that contribute substantially to its economy. These pathways reflect a city reinventing itself for a new era of wealth creation.
Sydney, ranking 9th with 152,900 millionaires after 28% growth over the past decade, is accessible through Australia’s National Innovation Visa ,as is Melbourne (16th with 94,000). This talent-based program offers permanent residence to entrepreneurs with exceptional achievements, requiring nomination by a government agency rather than direct investment, reflecting Australia’s focus on attracting innovative talent.
The https://citizenshiphubs.com/italy-golden-visa/ program offers access to opportunities in cities such as Milan (11th with 115,000 millionaires) and Rome (26th with 51,800), with investments starting at EUR 250,000 in innovative start-ups, combining access to the eurozone’s third-largest economy with unparalleled quality of life — a blend of business opportunity and lifestyle benefit representing a growing trend in how wealth selects its domicile.
The Canada Start Up Visa Program provides access to Toronto (15th with 108,400 millionaires), and Vancouver (29th with 46,400), which has seen a 52% increase in millionaires over the past 10 years, making it Canada’s fastest-growing wealth hub. Investors must demonstrate innovative business ideas with global potential and secure support from designated organizations, recognizing that today’s wealth creation is increasingly tied to innovation ecosystems.
The Swiss Residence Program requires paying annual lump-sum taxes (typically CHF 250,000+) while managing global investments from Swiss territory. This offers a sophisticated platform for global investment management, backed by centuries of private banking expertise in Zurich (ranking 20th with 77,800 millionaire residents, up 10% over the past decade) and Geneva (22nd with 70,200, with millionaire population growth of 26%).
The UAE’S Residence by Investment initiative, which includes a real estate option starting at AED 2 million, provides residence in the country that attracted the most millionaires globally in 2024, with over 6,700 net inflows. Dubai’s 102% growth in millionaires over the past decade showcases its trajectory from regional hub to global wealth center — it now ranks 18th globally, with 81,200 resident high-net-worth individuals.
The future of global wealth
The implications for wealth preservation and growth are profound. The most sophisticated investors now view investment migration not just as a pathway to residence, but as a portfolio diversification strategy. Multiple residence and citizenship rights function as a form of sovereignty arbitrage, providing optionality in an era of increasing global uncertainty.
For cities, the competition for mobile wealth has sparked improvements in urban planning and financial infrastructure. The most successful wealth hubs now offer not just tax efficiency, but entire ecosystems designed to preserve and multiply capital across generations. Cities that master this relationship — providing both the infrastructure for wealth creation and the legal frameworks for wealth preservation — will continue to attract disproportionate shares of global capital.
The message for today’s wealth holders is clear: strategic positioning across multiple jurisdictions reduces exposure to country-specific risks while multiplying opportunities for business, education, and lifestyle. Investment migration programs offer structured access to the world’s wealthiest cities and are an increasingly important component of international wealth planning.
