The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025

Methodology

The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report is published annually by Henley & Partners, the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment, in partnership with global wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, which is currently the only known independent wealth research entity systematically tracking global wealth migration trends between countries and cities.

Henley & Partners’ pioneering intelligence on investment migration trends coupled with New World Wealth’s exclusive wealth migration data offers unparalleled insights into the global movements and preferences of high-net-worth individuals and their families. With over a decade of research, both firms provide a unique perspective on the intersection of wealth and mobility.

Most high-net-worth individuals migrate through the acquisition of work visas, ancestry visas, retirement visas, and family visas or by birthright second passports. Around 30% opt for investment migration programs to secure alternative residence rights or additional citizenships.

Mapping the migration of millionaires 

The following sources are consulted when mapping the migration of high-net-worth individuals:

• Investment migration program statistics in each country — including citizenship programs, golden visas, and other high-end investor visas.
• Henley & Partners’ internal data on the number, nationalities, and locations of wealthy individuals who enquire about and apply for investment migration programs.
• Tracking the movements of over 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in New World Wealth’s in-house database.
• Monitoring where new family offices are being established — typically, only individuals with liquid wealth exceeding USD 100 million have the resources to set up a dedicated family office.
• Property registers in major destination markets — to identify who is acquiring prime real estate.
• Company registers — with a focus on filings by directors that indicate a change in country of residence.
• Statistics from high-end international removal firms — offering insight into where affluent clients are moving.

Calculating the wealth of migrating millionaires

The ‘Estimated Wealth of Migrating Millionaires’ figures in this report are calculated by multiplying a country’s high-net-worth-individual migration flows by the average wealth of a typical high-net-worth individual in that country. It is worth noting that high-net-worth individuals who move to Monaco typically have a net worth of well over USD 30 million, whereas those moving to the UAE, the USA, and Italy normally have a net worth of under USD 10 million.

Note: This does not necessarily mean that these high-net-worth individuals will bring all of this wealth with them when they move. Many will still keep much of their wealth with large banks and wealth managers abroad, and invested in global stock markets such as the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, JPX.

Henley & Partners: Investment migration intelligence

Henley & Partners has more than 25 years of institutional experience. The firm’s extensive data on investment migration trends is drawn from advising clients from over 100 different nationalities and engaging with enquiries from more than 200 nationalities worldwide.

Henley & Partners tracks the number, nationalities, and locations of wealthy individuals who enquire about and apply for investment migration programs, whether or not they ultimately relocate, as well as trends in program demand and investment, offering unique insights into the motivations and preferences of those seeking additional residence or citizenship options.

Note: For research purposes, Henley & Partners only uses anonymized statistics and never discloses the personal details of the individuals in its database.

New World Wealth: Tracking millionaires on the move

New World Wealth tracks the movements of over 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in its in-house database, with a special focus on those with over USD 30 million in listed company holdings. The database’s primary focus is on entrepreneurs and company founders (50%+ of the database) and individuals from high-value companies who hold the following positions: chairperson, CEO, president, director, and managing partner.

The firm uses various public sources to check city locations, including LinkedIn and other business portals. Its statistics are therefore mainly based on the work locations of the individuals. LinkedIn is generally the best source for this as it is updated in real time by the high-net-worth individuals themselves or by their personal assistants. LinkedIn has approximately 1 billion members worldwide and over 70% of the world’s CEOs have active profiles on the platform. LinkedIn is by far the most powerful tool in the world when it comes to checking a person’s company details, sector details, and city location.

Note: It should be noted that New World Wealth never discloses the names of the individuals in its database, which it uses purely for in-house statistical studies.

Country wealth data

New World Wealth uses a progressive Lorenz curve distribution to determine the wealth tiers in each country. Key inputs include:

• Wealth data from New World Wealth’s in-house database.
• Prime property statistics. Specifically, the firm considers the number of highly priced homes in each country/city.
• Stock market statistics, focusing on privately held market cap.
• Household income and household savings statistics.
• Tax data, with a specific focus on income tiers. Typically, an individual with an annual income of over USD 200,000 will be a high-net-worth individual.

New World Wealth’s model combines the above metrics in order to calculate the total wealth held in each country and the number of individuals in each wealth tier. For the top wealth tiers, namely, centi-millionaires and billionaires, the firm predominantly relies on its in-house database of high-net-worth individuals.

The model also maps each country’s historical wealth growth trends by considering:

• Currency movements versus the USD
• Stock market movements in USD terms
• Prime property price movements in USD terms, focusing specifically on the price per square meter movements
• The migration trends of high-net-worth individuals

Note: The bulk of high-net-worth-individual wealth worldwide is tied up in equities, residential property, and cash. Large movements in any of these segments therefore impact significantly on the total private wealth held in a country.

Wealth Definitions

For the purposes of this report:

• The terms ‘millionaires’ or ‘high-net-worth individuals’ (HNWIs) refer to individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 million or more.
• The term ‘centi-millionaires’ refers to individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 100 million or more.
• The term ‘billionaires’ refers to individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 billion or more.
• ‘Wealth’ refers to an individual’s liquid investable wealth, which only includes their listed company holdings, cash, bonds, gold, and crypto holdings (namely, items that can be cashed in quickly).

Wealth versus GDP

We consider wealth to be a far better measure of the financial health of an economy than GDP. The reasons for this include:

• In many countries, a large portion of GDP flows to government and therefore has little to no impact on private wealth creation.
• GDP counts items multiple times. For instance, if someone is paid USD 100 for a product or a service and they then pay someone else that same USD 100 for another product or service, USD 200 will be added to the country’s GDP, despite the fact that only USD 100 was produced at the start.
• GDP largely overlooks the impact of property and stock market moves, yet these two factors clearly have a significant impact on wealth creation.
• GDP is a relatively static measure that tends to move only slightly year on year. It also has a time lag.

Wealth figures, on the other hand, have none of these limitations, making them a far more accurate gauge of the true financial health of an economy than its GDP figures.

For further information on the benefits of using wealth over GDP as a metric and the key drivers of wealth please see here.

Disclaimer

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This report is distributed for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. It should not form the basis of any decision. The information contained in this report is not, and shall not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy or an offer to purchase any securities, nor should it be deemed to be an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, to purchase or sell any investment product or service. Henley & Partners is not responsible for the content of websites and information resources that may be referenced in this report. The information contained in this report is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, but is subject to change without notice. Henley & Partners does not have any obligation to provide revisions in the event of changed circumstances. Henley & Partners and its affiliates, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any liability or loss whatsoever, including but not limited to direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, arising out of or in connection with the use or reliance on the information contained in this report. The information in this report is provided “as is” and Henley & Partners makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the information contained in this report for any purpose.

The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025 was published on 24 June 2025.