Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 15th of April 2020 to The Sounding Line.

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The following map, from Visual Capitalist, shows where the world’s ultra-rich called home in 2019.

The table below details the 15 largest ultra-rich populations. While the US remains the most popular residence for the ultra-rich, China’s ultra-rich population is growing at over twice the pace.

Rank	Country	Ultra-High Net Worth Population	1-Year Change (%)
#1	United States	240,575	5.9%
#2	China	61,587	14.7%
#3	Germany	23,078	0.8%
#4	France	18,776	7.9%
#5	Japan	17,013	17.0%
#6	UK	14,367	3.6%
#7	Italy	10,701	20.8%
#8	Canada	9,325	5.3%
#9	Russia	8,924	3.9%
#10	Switzerland	8,395	3.0%
#11	Spain	6,475	-1.1%
#12	India	5,986	0.2%
#13	South Korea	5,847	21.6%
#14	Sweden	5,174	0.3%
#15	Saudi Arabia	5,100	0.0%

According to Knight Frank’s 2020 Wealth Report, upon which the prior map is based, the largest component of the ultra-rich portfolio is real-estate, followed by stocks, and then bonds.

Property as an Investment	Equities	Bonds/Fixed Income	Cash	Private Equity	Collectables	Gold/Precious Metals	Crypto
27%	23%	17%	11%	8%	5%	3%	1%

Fortunately for the ultra-rich, central banks’ longstanding bailout of financial markets, owned overwhelming by the wealthy, has been pushed into overdrive by the Coronavirus pandemic. Accordingly, most of the sharp financial loses suffered in March have already been papered over. With the Fed printing anywhere from a quarter to half-a-trillion dollars every single week, who knows, maybe the pandemic will end up a net positive for financial market multiples.

Meanwhile, most of the world remains in lockdown. If you thought that the wealth divide of the last decade looked bad, just wait for what comes next.

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