Why are millionaires fleeing China and the UK in droves?

Since the early 2000s, China’s per capita GDP has increased tenfold, and is now on par with Turkey, Russia and Argentina. At the same time, the poverty rate has fallen from 45% to 0.1% in twenty years, contributing to the growth of a middle class that now accounts for half the population.

• Improved economic conditions, China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and Beijing’s prominence in globalization have also contributed to the emergence of a very wealthy class consisting of hundreds of thousands of millionaires and billionaires.
• In 2022, China had more billionaires than the United States for the first time: 1,133 compared to 716. The Chinese economy then “produced” more billionaires annually than any other country.

Since then, the balance of power has shifted. British immigration and investment consultancy Henley & Partners now has twice as many billionaires living in the United States as in China. In the case of millionaires, the number is six times higher.

• Although the number of Chinese millionaires grew by 92% between 2013 and 2023, 15,200 of these wealthiest citizens are expected to move abroad this year.
• This makes China the country where the most millionaires should travel abroad in 2024, followed by the UK (9,500), India (4,300), and South Korea (1,200).
• In China, this mass migration is mainly due to the real estate crisis, policies aimed at reasserting state control over certain sectors of the economy, and the party’s struggle against “wealth displays” in the name of “common prosperity.”

The main reasons for the exodus of millionaires and billionaires are financial, monetary and economic stability, but also political stability. Canada, whose economy and tax system do not particularly favor the rich, is expected to attract 3,200 millionaires this year, making it the fourth most attractive destination, after Singapore, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Elections, and more generally, changes in government, have an accelerating effect on the migration of the wealthy. While the rise of Labour to power in London doubled the number of millionaires leaving the country compared to the previous year, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron to the Elysée—with his “pro-business” reputation—in 2017 has caused a reversal in net migration from the richest.