As pandemic, geopolitical tensions took their toll, China’s affluent families saw wealth and numbers decline, Hurun report says

As of January last year, the number of affluent Chinese families had dropped by 0.8 per cent from the previous year, report released on Tuesday says

The pandemic and ‘a shifting geopolitical landscape’ posed uncertainties that affected private wealth in major countries by varying degrees: Rupert Hoogewerf

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Beijing topped the charts for rich families, while Shanghai (above) and Hong Kong were in second and third place, Hurun says. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 3:45pm, 19 Mar 2024Updated: 7:26pm, 19 Mar 2024

The number of rich families in China declined for the second time in 15 years as the world’s second-largest economy tackles a slew of economic challenges.

As of January last year, the number of affluent Chinese families with 6 million yuan (US$833,484) and above in assets had dropped to 5.14 million, a 0.8 per cent decline from the previous year, according to a report published by the Hurun Research Institute on Tuesday. The first decline in the number of high-net-worth (HNW) families – a drop of 1.5 per cent – was recorded in 2019, according to a previous Hurun report.

The report showed that the number of HNW families – with assets worth more than 10 million yuan – dropped 1.3 per cent to 2.08 million in 2023, while the number of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families – with assets worth more than 100 million yuan – fell 3.8 per cent to 133,000.

The number of international UHNW families, defined as families with assets worth more than US$30 million, also declined by 4.5 per cent to 88,000.

“In 2022, the pandemic and a shifting geopolitical landscape posed uncertainties to global economic development, impacting private wealth in major countries by varying degrees,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, the chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report who is also known as Hu Run.

The report comes amid a push by President Xi Jinping to address inequality through his “common prosperity” initiative, which is intended to bolster social and economic equality, as wealth disparity has increased significantly in China in tandem with an economic boom from the late 1970s onwards.