Overview
- The UBS Global Wealth Report released Tuesday showed global private wealth rose 10.8% in 2025 and nearly one million people crossed the US$1 million threshold, about 2,600 new millionaires per day with roughly half located in the United States.
- Gains were heavily concentrated at the top: mean (average) wealth increased while median wealth fell in many markets, signaling that most of the benefit went to already-wealthy households and that holdings above US$5 million expanded fastest.
- UBS cites strong financial markets and rising real‑estate values as the main drivers, and notes that for many new millionaires the largest asset was their primary residence which the report counts toward net wealth.
- Growth varied by region and country with EMEA posting 17.5% growth partly helped by a weaker dollar, the US and China holding more than half of global private wealth, Switzerland topping average wealth per adult, and Germany reaching about 2.6 million dollar‑millionaires who own roughly 46% of the nation’s private wealth.
- The headline totals depend on UBS’s methods so alternative measures from firms like Capgemini and BCG that exclude owner‑occupied housing or use different currency treatments show smaller millionaire counts, a distinction that matters for tax debates and policy responses to rising inequality.