China tops the world's billionaires in rate of wealth accumulation. (Wealth-X)
With an average age of 53, China’s billionaires are younger than those from any other country, according to a new research report on China’s wealthy.
The new study by UBS and Wealth-X studied the demographics of 157 known Chinese billionaires, which make up the second-largest group of billionaires in the world after the United States, which has 515. China is gaining ground quickly, however—as can be seen from the chart above, it has the fastest rate of wealth accumulation among billionaires.
“In China, most billionaires are entrepreneurs who remain heavily involved in their family businesses,” said Simon Jin, President of UBS (China) Limited. The report found that nearly 90 percent of the country’s billionaires “made their own fortunes,” comprising the highest percentage of self-made billionaires in any country. Roughly 5 percent inherited their wealth and 6 percent saw wealth increases.
Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have the highest number of billionaires, with 26, 19, and 16, respectively. That leaves 122 in other locations, showing the importance of second-tier cities as centers for China’s wealthy.
In addition, China’s billionaires are predominately male (although China does have the largest number of female billionaires), and have an average net worth of US $2.4 billion, with a liquidity of 10 percent.
Thanks to the amount of “grey wealth” floating in China, its true number of China’s billionaires is somewhat of a guessing game, with numerous rich lists offering differing results. However, there’s one thing that these lists all agree on: China’s richest are getting a lot richer.