The data in the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report and Henley Private Wealth Migration Dashboard is supplied by wealth intelligence firm, New World Wealth, which is currently the only known independent research firm systematically tracking global wealth migration trends between countries and cities.
It is important to note that the high-net-worth-individual migration figures in this report and dashboard focus only on people who have truly moved, namely, those who stay in their new country more than half of the year. Many wealthy individuals acquire residence rights for countries but never relocate to those countries. Such individuals are excluded from our figures, which are therefore on the conservative side.
Most migrating high-net-worth individuals do so via work visas, ancestry visas, and family visas or owing to having additional passports by birthright. New World Wealth estimates that currently around 25% opt for investment migration programs to secure residence rights or additional citizenships.
New World Wealth tracks the movements of over 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in its in-house database, with a special focus on those with over USD 30 million in listed company holdings. The database’s primary focus is on company founders (50%+ of the database) and individuals from high-value companies who hold the following positions: chairperson, CEO, president, director, and managing partner.
The firm uses various public sources to check city locations, including LinkedIn and other business portals. Its stats are therefore mainly based on the work locations of the individuals.
Note: It should be noted that New World Wealth never gives out the names of the individuals in its database, which it uses purely for in-house statistical studies.
New World Wealth also uses the following sources as sanity checks on its data:
- Investment migration program statistics and source breakdowns in major destination markets.
- Regular interviews with high-net-worth-individual intermediaries — brokers, wealth managers, and top-end property agents.
Wealth versus GDP
We consider wealth to be a far better measure of the financial health of an economy than GDP. The reasons for this include:
- In many developing countries, a large portion of GDP flows to the government and therefore has little to no impact on private wealth creation.
- GDP counts items multiple times. For instance, if someone is paid USD 100 for a product/service and they then pay someone else that same USD 100 for another product/service, that adds USD 200 to a country’s GDP, despite the fact that only USD 100 was produced at the start.
- GDP ignores the efficiency of a country’s local banking sector and the local stock market in retaining wealth within its borders.
- GDP largely ignores the impact of property and stock market moves, yet these two factors clearly have a significant impact on wealth.
- GDP is a relatively static measure that tends to move only slightly year on year. It also has a time lag.
Wealth figures, on the other hand, have none of these limitations, making them a far more accurate gauge of the financial health of an economy than its GDP figures.
Wealth definitions
W15 | The 15 wealthiest countries in the world in terms of their number of resident millionaires |
Millionaires or high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) | Individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 million or more |
Centi-millionaires | Individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 100 million or more |
Billionaires | Individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 billion or more |
About New World Wealth
New World Wealth was established in 2013 and has been tracking the movements and spending habits of the world’s wealthiest people for over a decade. The firm has an impressive track record in providing robust, reliable wealth data and insights for key publications, such as Knight Frank’s Wealth Report, AfrAsia Bank’s Global Wealth Migration Review, and Henley & Partners’ Africa Wealth Report, BRICS Wealth Report, Centi-Millionaire Report, Crypto Wealth Report, USA Wealth Report, World’s Wealthiest Cities Report, and the Henley Wealth and Sustainability Report. New World Wealth’s reports and findings have been referenced by the Australian and UK governments, as well as by global news outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, the New York Times, Robb Report, and the Telegraph.
For more information on New World Wealth, please visit newworldwealth.com
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The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2024 was published on 18 June 2024.
