This puts the British financial hub in the same category as Lagos and Istanbul, which are also seeing net outflows of rich people, according to the Global Wealth Migration Review published this month.
About 5,000 high net-worth individuals left the UK during 2017 and only about 1,000 arrived, the report shows.
“Over the past 30 years, the United Kingdom has been one of the biggest recipients of migrating HNWIs,” the report said.
HNWI stands for high net worth individual.
“However, this trend changed in 2017 when the country experienced its first major HNWI net outflow.”
Losing wealthy individuals is normally a sign of trouble in the political economy of a country. Rich people are often the first people to leave because they can – unlike the middle class or the poor.
Cities that saw large inflows of HNWIs include Auckland, Dubai, Montreal, New York, Tel Aviv and Toronto, the report showed.
New World Wealth says it focuses only on HNWIs who have truly moved – that is, those who stay in their new country for more than half the year. China and India continue to dominate countries that the rich are moving out of, but once the standard of living improves several wealthy people will probably return, according to the report.
Mumbai – India’s financial hub – is expected to be the fastest-growing city in terms of increase in wealth over the next decade.
Wealth in the entire country is predicted to triple in the period to about US$25 trillion followed by China’s 180% increase to US$69 trillion, according to the report. The US will expand 20% but still tops the holdings list with US$75 trillion of wealth.
Total private wealth held worldwide amounts to about US$215 trillion, according to the report. While the average person has net assets of US$28,400, there are some 15.2 million HNWIs in the world, defined as those with net assets of US$1 million or more.
Russia is the most “unequal” country, where 24% of total wealth is held by billionaires. Japan is the most equal, with only 3% controlled by billionaires.