Wealth Blog | Growth in Chinese millionaires slowest in five years

Guangdong in southern China is now the province with the second highest number of super- wealthy individuals, while Tianjin saw the fastest increase in millionaire numbers of any mainland city last year.

One out of every 1,300 people in China is now a “millionaire”, with personal wealth of over Renminbi 10 million (HK$12.6 million) and one out of every 20,000 is in the super rich bracket, with personal riches of RMB 100m (HK$126 million).

The total number of mainland millionaires, excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau has increased by 30,000 from last year to 1.05 million by December 2012, while the number of the super-rich increased by 1,000 to 64,500 – an increase of 3% and 2% respectively.

In the super-super rich bracket, there are 8,100 RMB billionaires and 280 individuals with personal assets of 10 billion RMB (HK$12.6 billion) in China. But on average the wealthy spent only 3% of their average wealth of 59 million RMB (HK$74 million) last year.

These are the findings of the 2013 GroupM Knowledge-Hurun Wealth Report, compiled by the Hurun Research Institute and GroupM Knowledge. The report shows the rate of growth is the slowest in five years and has decelerated for the second consecutive year.

While Beijing has the most super-wealthy, with 184,000 millionaires, up 5,000 on last year, and 10,700 super-rich, up 200; Guangdong comes a close second with 172,000 millionaires and 9,200 super-rich. Shanghai is third, with 147,000 millionaires and 8,500 super rich. This year Tianjin rises to tenth place, with 19,000 millionaires, up 11% from the previous year, as well as 1,400 super rich, up 12% - the fastest increase in all the cities.