The US remains the world’s undisputed leader in wealth accumulation — but where within the states that money is concentrated is in flux.
According to London-based investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners’ recently released 2024 USA Wealth Report, certain parts of America are seeing their rich resident populations rise rapidly — but they’re not the parts that generally make headlines for wealth. Those, typically, have been New York and Los Angeles.
Despite periodic concern of “an impending millionaire exodus from America due to higher taxes, crime, or other domestic concerns,” data shows that the well-off aren’t “wholesale fleeing,” but that the US is undergoing a “millionaire remix,” Henley & Partners managing partner Mehdi Kadiri wrote in an intro to the new report.
“Cities such as Austin, Miami, and Scottsdale are gaining residents, while traditional hubs such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago experience modest declines,” Kadiri added. “Critically, the broader sum remains net positive, buoyed by relentless immigrant influx not just across the Southern border, but from skilled migrant talent chasing the enduring American dream.”
Indeed, although New York City remains the most millionaire-rich city in the US by a significant margin — with 349,500 millionaires, 744 centi-millionaires and 60 billionaires calling it home — the city only experienced a 48% millionaire growth rate from 2013 to 2023.
Austin, Texas, meanwhile — home to 32,700 millionaires, 92 centi-millionaires and 10 billionaires — experienced a 110% millionaire growth rate over the same period, the largest increase in the US, according to the report.
In second place for wealth growth over the same period is Scottsdale, Arizona, which had a 102% growth rate, followed by Florida’s Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, which had a 93% growth rate.
Of the 11 cities ranked in the report’s America’s Wealthiest Cities data, New York and Los Angeles were near the bottom. Chicago took dead last. New York and LA saw significantly less wealth growth in the past decade (under 50% for both) than other metros including Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.