World’s ultrawealthy population grows 6% in 2014

The world’s ultra-high-net-worth population — individuals with assets of $30 million or more — increased by 6 percent to 211,275 in 2014 and their combined assets grew by 7 percent to $27.8 trillion, according to the latest ultrawealth report from UBS and Wealth-X.

These individuals account for 0.004 percent of the global adult population, but control nearly 12.8 percent of the world’s total wealth, the report said.

Among them are 2,325 billionaires with a combined $7.3 trillion in assets, up 7.1 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively, from 2013.

The new report found that North America and Europe had the largest ultrawealthy population and wealth as both regions continued to attract financial and human capital, and their influence over the world’s wealth expanded.

Asia ranked third in ultra-high-net-worth population and wealth, despite mixed performance across the region’s markets that tempered its growth.

In contrast, the Middle East and Africa were the fastest growing regions in terms of ultrawealth population and wealth, even though both experienced, and continued to experience, crises that boded ill for their long-term growth potential — from the ongoing Syrian crisis to the Ebola epidemic in West African.

Latin America and the Caribbean recovered this year from a decline in both ultra-high-net-worth population and wealth in 2013, with both factors rising above 2012 levels — this despite slow growth this year, as the region’s economies battled inflationary pressures and negative currency movements.

The following is a geographical distribution of ultrawealthy individuals and percentage increase from 2013 and their combined assets and percentage growth: