The number of millionaires worldwide and their wealth continued to grow in 2025, reaching new records, driven by the strong performance of the stock market and a decrease in inflation.
The data appears in a study published on Thursday by Capgemini and cited by AFP.
The consulting firm defines wealthy individuals as those holding over 1 million dollars that can be invested, excluding their primary residence.
Their number increased by 7.9%, reaching 25.3 million last year, nearly 2 million more than in 2024, as calculated by Capgemini in its international study titled World Wealth Report.
Their total wealth increased by 8.7%, reaching 98.3 trillion - thousands of billions - of dollars, a record and the highest annual growth since 2018.
"Capital markets, driven by gains related to artificial intelligence, have been the primary engine of wealth creation in five of the six major geographic regions examined," according to Capgemini.
At the same time, the wealth of the rich remains extremely concentrated: 1% of them own 34.8% of this wealth.
In 2025, despite the new American tariffs, Wall Street indices were supported by the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts and enthusiasm related to artificial intelligence, recording increases between 13% and 20%.
In Europe, investors rode the wave of defense companies and the massive public investment plan promised in Germany. Frankfurt gained 23.01%, Paris 10.41%, Milan 31.46%, and London 21.51%.
However, the strongest growth in the number of millionaires (9.4%) was observed in the Asia-Pacific region, driven by semiconductors, with Japan and China at the forefront.
In North America, their number increased by 9.1%, thanks to the United States, which saw the most new millionaires in absolute terms (+736,000, or 9.2%, reaching 8.7 million).
After a decline in 2024, Europe also saw an increase in the number of millionaires by 6.5%. Luxembourg (+13.5%) and Germany (+11.1%) lead the ranking, far ahead of France (+2.7%).
Africa (+4.1%) and Latin America (+0.3%) also saw growth, while the Middle East was the only region to experience a decline (-1.4%), particularly penalized by the drop in oil prices.
Regarding the ultra-rich population, with assets of at least 30 million dollars, it increased by 9.4%, reaching approximately 250,000 individuals. Their wealth grew by 9.7%.