Ben Woodhead Deputy editor - digital

Ben Woodhead is deputy editor - digital at the Financial Review Group. He writes on business, technology, politics and the economy and can be found on BRW, The Australian Financial Review and Smart Investor.

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Where China’s million millionaires live

Published 02 August 2012 08:16, Updated 02 August 2012 08:18

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Where China’s million millionaires live

Yuan and loving it ... China has over one million millionaires and their third favourite holiday destination is Australia.

There’s no doubt China is dripping with nouveau riche.

In Beijing alone there are 179,000 Chinese millionaires, while Guandong and Shanghai boast 167,000 and 140,000 respectively.

Between them, these three titanic Chinese cities are home to a bit more than a third of China’s one million millionaires, according to figures published in the Hurun Wealth Report 2012, the fourth Chinese wealth report published by Hurun Report and GroupM Knowledge.

Not only is China fairly bursting with millionaires, it also has more than a few super-rich residents. In all, there are 63,500 people living in China who fall into this category, which is classified as individuals with more that about $US16 million in wealth.

“Chinese individuals with more than RMB 10 million (equivalent to $US1.6 million) broke through the one million mark for the first time, reaching a record 1,020,000 individuals, an increase of 6.3 per cent over the previous year,” the Hurun Wealth Report 2012 finds.

“Furthermore, China is home to 63,500 super-rich, defined as individuals with RMB 100 million (equivalent to $US16 million), an increase of 5.8 per cent from that of last year. At present, for every 1300 persons in China, there exists one millionaire.

“As of the end of 2010, there were 960,000 millionaires and 60,000 super-rich, whilst the end of 2009 recorded 875,000 millionaires and 55,000 super-rich.”

According to the report, China’s property market has given rise to sizeable portion of the nation’s new wealth and it notes that luxury property prices in Shanghai are up 21 per cent from last year.

Australia, meanwhile, is among the beneficiaries of these million millionaires’ largesse, with Hurun finding that Australia is the third most popular overseas holiday destination for China’s new rich. France took out the top spot, while the US is No. 2.

But if you think these millionaires aren’t doing anything but splash their wealth around, you’d be wrong.

“Although the consumption of luxury goods is still a predominant habit amongst the rich and super-rich, this year saw an increasing number of millionaires begin to pursue a low-key lifestyle,” the report finds.

“Spending on their children’s education continues to increase, with a clear preference towards sending their children abroad. This is accompanied by the rise of emigration out of China and investment in overseas real estate.”

As for where China’s million millionaires and more than 63,000 super-rich individuals live:

Location No. of millionaires* Rank Increase of individuals (year-on-year) No. of super rich* Rank Increase of individuals (year-on-year)
Beijing 179,000 1 9000   10,500 1 500
Guangdong 167,000 2 10,000   9500 2 500
    Guangzhou    55,000   1500   4100   100
    Shenzhen 52,000   2700   3400   100
    Dongguan 18,000   3400   900   60
Shanghai 140,000 3 8000   8200 3 400
Zhejiang 133,000 4 7000   7800 4 350
    Hangzhou 53,000   1500   2900   50
    Wenzhou 22,500   500   2400   70
    Ningbo 20,000   5300   1200   250
Jiangsu 73,000 5 5000   4800 5 200
    Nanjing 24,200   200   1900   100
    Suzhou 20,000   3100   1100   110
Fujian 38,600 6 2600   2400 6 200
    Xiamen 12,500   300   700   40
Fuzhou 13,000   2000   650   90
Shandong 35,000 7 2000   2000 8 100
    Qingdao 12,500   500   680   60
    Yantai 2500   800   150   40
Liaoning 30,800 8 1800   2050 7 130
    Dalian 12,500   600   850   100
    Shenyang 8800   460   650   90
    Sichuan 25,500 9 1500   1800 9 100
    Chengdu 15,000   500   850   50
Henan 17,300 10 800   1200 13 50
Tianjin 17,100 11 1100   1250 12 70
Hebei 16,400 12 900   1300 11 100
Shanxi 15,000 13 1000   1350 10 100
Hunan 14,600 14 1100   830 17 70
Hubei 14,400 15 900   1080 14 80
    Wuhan 7500   2790   450   100
Shaanxi 14,000 16 1000   830 17 70
    Xi’an 7000   2810   300   40
Inner Mongolia 13,500 17 1000   850 16 60
    Erdos 4000       230    
    Hohhot 3200       180    
Chongqing 12,500 18 1000   800 20 70
Heilongjiang 11,800 19 800   780 21 50
    Harbin 6500   -240   450   40
Jiangxi 9600 20 600   830 17 70
Anhui 9200 21 700   900 15 50
Jilin 8000 22 500   520 23 40
Yunnan 6000 23 500   540 22 40
Guangxi 5400 24 400   400 24 30
Hainan 4200 25 200   170 27 10
Guizhou 3200 26 200   280 25 20
Xinjiang 3200 26 200   260 26 20
Ningxia 870 28 70   95 28 5
Gansu 750 29 50   85 29 5
Qinghai 650 30 50   55 30 5
Tibet 430 31 30   45 31 5
Total 1,020,000   60,000   63,500   3,500

*Not including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau

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