Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of its founding document, the United States remains a standout for wealth generation.
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In its latest “Global Wealth Report,” UBS found that 440,000 people in the U.S. joined the ranks of millionaires in 2025. That amounted to 1,200 a day and accounted for nearly half of all new millionaires globally last year.
The U.S. ended 2025 with more than 23.6 million millionaires — that’s 41% of 57.5 million millionaires globally. That far exceeded every other country in the world.
Mainland China, with its far bigger population, came in a distant second place with just over 5.3 million millionaires. Following it were Japan (2.9 million), Germany (just over 2.6 million), the U.K. (just over 2.4 million) and France (just shy of 2.4 million).
Millionaires on the rise around the world
To be sure, inflation has made the dream of becoming a millionaire much more achievable for many around the globe.
UBS found that every country in the world ended 2025 with more millionaires than they had at the start of the year. All told, the number of millionaires globally increased by 1.5%.
“This may not sound like much, but it corresponds to nearly one million new millionaires minted in 2025, or over 2,680 per day,” UBS’ report said.
UBS wealth executives attributed the growth to strong investment returns — U.S. stocks have been on a bull run for more than three years — along with rising values in nonfinancial assets.
“Global wealth rose for a third consecutive year — and at a notably stronger pace, with average individual wealth increasing at a rate far outstripping global economic growth,” Robert Karofsky, the co-president UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a statement.
Wealth distribution remains highly uneven in the U.S.
Of course, the gains weren’t shared equally. UBS’ numbers showed that the distribution of wealth varies greatly from country to country.
The U.S., for instance, registered an average wealth per adult of $696,277 last year. That put it behind only Switzerland, which had an average of $910,382.
But when it came to median wealth — a number less likely to be influenced by ultrarich outliers — the U.S. fell to the 28th spot among all countries. U.S. adults had a median wealth of $68,998 in 2025. The country in the No. 1 spot, Luxembourg, had a median wealth of $394,005 per adult. Nearly one in six adults in Luxembourg is a millionaire, as is roughly one in seven in Switzerland, UBS found.
Wealth has skyrocketed for the $5M+ crowd
Many wealth managers require potential clients to have more than $1 million in assets. Firms are instead intent on courting high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients with far more to their names.
For those with such ambitions, the U.S. remains the place to be, according to UBS’ report. In 2025, the U.S. had just over 4 million people whose total wealth ranged from $5 million to $100 million, accounting for more than half of the 7 million people worldwide in that wealth bracket.
As is often the case, the rich have been able to get richer faster than virtually everyone else. UBS found the collective wealth of those with at least $5 million increased by 343% since 2000. Add to the group “everyday millionaires” — or people with at least $1 million to their names — and the growth rate falls to 171%.
