Last year the world had 1,125 billionaires. Today, there are just 793. So what happened to $1.4 trillion that was cut from the running, and where are the remaining billionaires residing this year?
Despite New York City losing more than a fifth of its billionaires during the past year, the Big Apple has managed to take the title as the billionaire capital of the world, currently functioning as the primary residence for 55 billionaires. Among these 55 individuals is the city’s richest resident, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is reportedly worth $16 billion.
Coming in third place in the top billionaire cities is London, England, with 28 billionaires. The city continues to attract wealthy individuals from all corners of the world, including Indian citizen and steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal, Russian oil and chemicals tycoon Leonard Blavatnik, and Dutch Heineken heiress Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, all of whom call London home.
Coming in third is Moscow, last year’s first-place winner for billionaire cities and home to Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Prokhorov, who is worth $9.5 billion. After losing 74 of the capitals billionaires to the recession, and subsequently getting bumped by New York and London for the top two spots, Moscow is now home to 27 billionaires. Because of plunging oil, real estate, and commodity prices and a decline in the value of the Russian ruble against the U.S. dollar, Russia has fared far worse than New York and London overall.
The list returns to America for its fourth top city for billionaires — San Francisco. Despite having less than 10% of the population of New York, London, and Moscow, San Francisco is demonstrating that it is a serious contender when it comes to being the place extremely wealthy individuals want to reside. There are 12 billionaires living in San Francisco and their average net worth is $2.6 billion. Northern California is renowned for its technologically savvy businessmen and women, including Google’s own Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who, despite each losing more than $6.5 billion this year, remain the Bay Area’s richest residents.
Overall, the list of the top 10 billionaire cities included more U.S. cities than any other country, with New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles all making the billion dollar cut.
Via: Forbes
