Billionaires are richer, Asia leads the way

The wealth held by the world's billionaires jumped by nearly $1 trillion in 2016, and they now have more money than the GDP of the entire European Union, according to a new report.

The population of billionaires rose by 145, or about 10 percent in 2016, to 1.542 billionaires, according to the report by UBS and PwC. The wealth held by those billionaires increased from $5.1 trillion to $6 trillion, according to the report. And Asia now has the most billionaires in the world, surpassing the U.S. for the first time with a new billionaire minted on average every other day in 2016. 

The surge in wealth by the world's billionaires far surpassed broader economic growth or stock markets. Their performance was twice the increase in the MSCI AC World Index, which measures stock market performance around the world. Billionaire wealth also far surpassed global economic growth of 5.8 percent in 2016, according to the report.

Indeed, Asia has become hottest region for billionaire growth. The report said Asia now has more billionaires than the U.S. has – although the U.S. still has by far the largest number of billionaires than any single country.

The U.S. has 563 billionaires compared with 318 in China, according to the report. Yet China added a net new 67 billionaires last year compared with 25 net new billionaires in the U.S. Europe added a net of only three billionaires last year. The U.S. also has the largest share of billionaire wealth — $2.8 trillion.

Billionaires are becoming major patrons of sports, the report said, adding that outside China, well-known examples of billionaire sports club owners include Steve Ballmer, ex Microsoft CEO, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Mukesh Ambani, the Indian oil and gas tycoon, who owns The Mumbai Indians cricket franchise.

The report said Asia will continue to be the big driver of billionaire fortunes, and that Asian billionaire wealth will outstrip the U.S. in four years. But Asia also has risks.

“A combination of geopolitical stability in Greater China, rising Chinese real estate prices, infrastructure spending, the growing middle class and buoyant commodity prices all joined together to boost wealth,” the report said.

The story for Europe in 2016 was largely the preservation of wealth. There were 342 billionaires in Europe by the end of the year, but growth remained static. Overall wealth grew modestly by 5% to just over $1.3 trillion, with 24 new billionaires and 21 dropping off the list, a third of them due to death.

The fortunes of Europe’s billionaires are closely intertwined with its countries’ economies. Germany, the largest economy, also has most billionaires, at 117. Britain comes a distant second (55), followed by Italy (42), France (39) and Switzerland (35).

France’s wealth grew fastest in 2016, at a rate of 15%, lifted by the fortunes of a few families. It was followed by Switzerland at 12% and Spain at 10%. Britain lagged at 1% and Germany at just above zero.