The global wealth landscape continued to evolve in a year marked by shifts in the economic environment. According to the 2025 edition of the UBS Global Wealth Report, global wealth increased by 4.6% in a dynamic rebound after registering 4.2% growth in 2023, thus maintaining an upward trend.
The report’s findings indicate that the pace of growth was quite uneven, with North America contributing the most, while the American continent as a whole accounted for the majority of the increase: over 11%. “The stability of the U.S. dollar and the dynamism of financial markets contributed decisively to this growth,” the document notes.
In contrast, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and the one comprising Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) lagged behind, with growth rates below 3% and 0.5%, respectively.
Key Trends
Focusing on geographic trends, the report notes that adults in North America were, on average, the wealthiest in 2024 (USD 593,347), followed by those in Oceania (USD 496,696) and Western Europe (USD 287,688), while Eastern Europe recorded the fastest growth in average wealth per adult, with an increase of over 12%.
However, measured in U.S. dollars and in real terms, more than half of the 56 markets in the sample not only did not contribute to global growth last year, but actually saw a decline in average wealth per adult. Despite this, Switzerland once again topped the list of average wealth per adult among individual markets, followed by the United States, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and Luxembourg. Notably, Denmark, South Korea, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, and Croatia recorded the largest increases in average wealth, all with double-digit growth rates (in local currency).
Another striking finding from the report is that the number of dollar millionaires increased by 1.2% in 2024, representing a rise of more than 684,000 people compared to the previous year. Once again, the United States stood out by adding more than 379,000 new millionaires—over 1,000 per day. “The United States, mainland China, and France recorded the highest number of dollar millionaires, and the U.S. alone accounted for nearly 40% of the global total,” the findings state.
According to UBS, over the past 25 years there has been a notable and steady increase in wealth worldwide, both in total and across each of the major regions. In fact, total wealth has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4% since 2000. “In the current decade, the wealth bracket below USD 10,000 is no longer the largest segment in the sample, as it has been surpassed by the next bracket, between USD 10,000 and USD 100,000,” they note.
Over the next five years, the report’s forecasts for average wealth per adult point to continued growth, led by the United States, as well as China and its area of influence (Greater China), Latin America, and Oceania.
