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This is a planet of rich and poor, although depending on where you travel, the abundance of the former is striking. For example, the United States and China. These two giants dominate the latest ranking of the 10 richest cities in the world. Only one European, London, has sneaked into the top ten of cities this year with people of superlative purchasing power.

The study, prepared by the British consultancy Henley & Partners, places New York as the wealthiest in the world with a concentration of 340,000 millionaire residents, surpassing other metropolises such as Tokyo and Hong Kong. They are figures of millionaires in the strict sense, that is, neighbors with more than one million dollars.

The Big Apple is closely followed in the ranking by two centers of opulence also American: the San Francisco Bay Area, in third place with 285,000 millionaires, and Los Angeles, in sixth place with 205,400.

Tokyo led this group a decade ago, but its rise in the Olympus of the rich has stalled in second place on the podium. There are many 290,300 millionaires that Henley & Partners has counted in the Japanese capital. Neither are the 258,000 potentates who live in London, number four in the ranking, although the British had been the richest city in the world for many years.

For its part, the city-state of Singapore ranks fifth (240,100 millionaires) in this report based on 97 cities around the world and statistical data collected in the last decade. Meanwhile, Sydney is in tenth place in the table with 126,900. According to the study, the Australian city treasures some of the most exclusive residential neighborhoods on the planet. "Sydney has experienced particularly strong growth in wealth over the past 20 years. It is projected to become one of the five richest cities in the world by 2040.

Dubai's magnet

Beyond the top ten, the report's head of research, Andrew Amoils, highlights two already traditional magnets of wealth, Monaco and Dubai, which have experienced especially strong millionaire growth over the past decade. The emirate is attractive to international millionaires due to low taxes. "Some 3,500 people with high purchasing power moved to the city of the Persian Coup in 2022," says Amoils.

Meanwhile, the principality remains the world's main haven for the super-rich. "The average wealth of a person living in Monaco exceeds $10 million, making it the top-ranked city in terms of wealth per capita," the researcher notes. It is also the most expensive city in the world, with apartment prices routinely exceeding $35,000 per square meter.

On the rise

The study also draws attention to three Chinese cities that are growing by leaps and bounds in terms of the number of rich people surveyed. These are Hangzhou, one of the most popular vacation spots in the country; the high-tech capital, Shenzhen; and the port city of Guangzhou. Across the Pacific, the three fastest-growing millionaire hotspots in the US are Austin, Texas, West Palm Beach, Florida, the city where President Trump lives, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

This is a list of the 10 richest cities in the world:

Richest cities in 2023

1. New York

2. Tokyo

3. San Francisco Bay

4. London

5. Singapore

6. Los Angeles

7. Hong Kong

8. Beijing

9. Shanghai

10. Sydney

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