India’s Ultra Rich To Grow At 63% By 2025: Knight Frank

The population of wealthier people in the world is expected to rise by 27 per cent in the next five years. The population of such wealthy people in India will rise faster than the world average at 63 per cent during the same time, a report prepared by Knight Frank, an international property consultancy said on Wednesday. 

Knight Frank has named these wealthy people as Ultra-High-Networth Individuals (UHNWIs), who hold assets over $30 million or more. In Indian Rupee terms this works out to be Rs 225 crore.  

Knight Frank has released its report titled ‘The Wealth Report 2021’ in which it has cited that there are currently 521,653 UHNWIs globally of which India comprises 6,884 such individuals. According to the report, the number of UHNWIs, around the world is predicted to grow by 27 per cent between 2020-25 taking this population to 663,483. 

India is expected to see incredible growth of 63 per cent in its UHNWIs population to 11,198 by 2025, making it the second-fastest-growing country in terms of the number of UHNWIs. 

Knight Frank report predicts that in the regional context, Asia is likely to see the highest rise in the number of UHNWIs with an estimated growth of 39 per cent. This will be led by Indonesia (67 per cent) and India (63 per cent). Whilst Indonesia boasts of a 67 per cent growth in its UHNWI population during this period, which is the highest globally, India’s UHNWI population will be 10 times that of Indonesia. 

From the perspective of Indian cities being home to the wealthy, Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore have a high concentration of wealth with 920, 375, and 238 UHNWIs respectively. 

According to the respondents to The Wealth Report 2021, 91 per cent of Indian UHNWIs expect to see an increase in their wealth in 2021. The expected rapid growth of the ultra-wealthy population in India is much faster compared to the global average of 27 per cent and the Asian average of 39 per cent.

The billionaires club in India is expected to increase significantly by 43 per cent to 162 by 2025 from the current 113 in 2020. The growth has outpaced the global average growth of 24 per cent and Asia’s average of 38 per cent during this period.  

Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank said, “Asia is the key wealth story. The US is, and will remain, the world’s dominant wealth hub over our forecast period, but Asia will see the fastest growth in UHNWIs over the next five years, 39 per cent compared to the 27 per cent global average. By 2025, Asia will host 24 per cent of all UHNWIs, up from 17 per cent a decade earlier. The region is already home to more billionaires than any other (36 per cent of the global total). China is the key to this phenomenon with 246 per cent forecast growth in UHNWI residents in the decade to 2025.”