According to Knight Frank data from the Wealth Report 2026, the distribution of the ultra-rich across countries remains extremely uneven. The absolute leaders are still the US and China, which account for about 55% of the world’s very rich.
The US is in first place with more than 250,000 rich people. Several factors contribute to this: a strong stock market, a developed startup ecosystem, a high concentration of major international corporations, and access to global investment markets. Thanks to these conditions, the US continues to be the world’s main center for the creation and accumulation of private capital.
The second place is occupied by China, where there are almost 122 thousand rich people. Although the Chinese economy is no longer growing as fast as in previous decades, the country remains one of the largest sources of entrepreneurial and investment wealth.
Rounding out the top five are residents of Germany, the UK and France. This underscores the continuing role of Europe as one of the world’s most important centers of concentration of large fortunes.
One of the most notable changes in recent years has been the rapid rise of India. Whereas in 2021 the country was only tenth in the ranking, by 2026 it had risen to sixth place, overtaking a number of richer countries.
Today, India is home to almost 20 thousand very rich citizens. The main reasons for this growth were: high rates of economic development, rapid expansion of financial markets, active growth of the technology sector, increasing number of successful entrepreneurs and investors. Many analysts believe that in the coming years India will continue to strengthen its position among the world’s largest centers of private capital.
Although most of the super-rich are still concentrated in North America, Europe and Asia, the fastest growth in the number of millionaires and billionaires today is observed in emerging economies. Poland in particular stands out as a major success story of the past five years. Since 2021, the number of very rich residents in the country has increased by an impressive 109% – the best result among all the nations included in the study.
