U.S. added 1,200 new millionaires a day as markets surged

The United States added an average of 1,200 new millionaires each day last year, UBS data show, as soaring equity markets propelled Americans to nearly half of the roughly 1 million new millionaires created globally.

"People tend to think about their wealth relative to the wealth of others, rather than in absolute terms," Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS, said in the report, pointing to a perception of inequality that can persist even as measured inequality narrows.

Global personal wealth rose 10.8% in dollar terms in 2025, the strongest annual gain since 2017, according to the 17th edition of UBS's Global Wealth Report. The increase was amplified by currency effects: Europe, the Middle East and Africa posted a 17.5% jump, helped by the euro's roughly 9% appreciation against the dollar, while the Americas grew 8.5% and Asia-Pacific 5.9%. The U.S. alone added more than 440,000 new millionaires, and for the first time in the report's history, not one of the 56 tracked markets recorded a decline in dollar millionaire counts.

The concentration of wealth remains extreme. The U.S. and mainland China together hold more than half of the world's personal wealth, with the U.S. alone hosting over 40% of all dollar millionaires. The cohort above $5 million — now roughly 7 million adults globally, more than 4 million of them in the U.S. — has grown at an annual rate exceeding 7% since 2000. For UBS, whose wealth management arm oversaw $4.8 trillion in assets at the end of 2025 and $6.9 trillion in invested assets as of the first quarter of 2026, the findings point to rising demand for advisory services in a more volatile environment.

Average vs. Median: A Tale of Two Wealth Measures

Switzerland leads the world in average wealth per adult at $910,382, ahead of the U.S. at $696,277 and Luxembourg at $654,732. But the median tells a different story. Switzerland's median wealth of $145,555 ranks only eighth globally, behind Luxembourg at $394,005, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. The gap between average and median — a factor of more than six in Switzerland and roughly 10 to 1 in the U.S. — reflects how a relatively small group of very wealthy individuals lifts the national average.

UBS's Gini coefficient, a measure of wealth inequality, places Switzerland at 0.68, ranking 20th out of 56 markets and marginally above Germany at 0.67. The U.S. scores 0.77, ranking sixth, behind only the United Arab Emirates, Russia, South Africa, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. High household debt also weighs on the median: Swiss households carry debt equal to 20.5% of gross wealth, among the highest in the sample.

The Millionaire Factory

The number of dollar millionaires globally grew by about 1.5% in 2025, equivalent to nearly 1 million new entrants — or more than 2,600 a day. Switzerland is home to roughly 944,000 dollar millionaires, ranking near the top on density, with only Luxembourg counting a higher share of millionaires in its adult population.

The "beyond-5-million" segment — adults with wealth exceeding $5 million — now comprises about 114,000 people in Switzerland alone. UBS Co-Presidents of Global Wealth Management Iqbal Khan and Robert Karofsky said the data points to rising demand for advice in a more volatile world. Beyond financial assets, the report notes that wealthy collectors hold around 20% of their wealth in art, a share that rises with wealth.

Donovan's warning against reading too much into absolute wealth figures carries weight. If currency-adjusted gains are stripped out, the real wealth effect is more modest than the headline 10.8% suggests. The 2025 Nobel laureate in economics, Joel Mokyr, argued in an interview within the report that it is ultimately human capital, not financial capital, that secures long-term prosperity — a reminder that the millionaire count, while striking, captures only one dimension of economic well-being.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.