Europe drives global millionaire boom, adding 155,000 in 2025
A UBS report shows Europe drove the vast majority of global millionaire creation outside the US last year, a shift underpinned by rising property values and tax-advantaged savings rather than headline economic growth.
Global ranks of dollar millionaires swelled by nearly one million in 2025, with Europe responsible for the vast majority of wealth creation outside the United States. Not a single market tracked by UBS across a 56-country sample saw a decline in its millionaire population over the year.
The continent’s largest economies dominated in absolute terms. The UK added more than 43,000 new millionaires, while France and Spain each added over 32,000. Italy and Germany also ranked in the global top ten, each creating more than 24,000 new millionaires.
In relative terms, the growth was concentrated in the east. The top five spots for percentage growth globally all belonged to European nations. Lithuania led the world with an 8% increase, followed by Turkey at 6.4%, Latvia at 5.7%, Hungary at 5.3% and Ireland at 5.2%.
For investors and policymakers, the figures underscore the extent to which European household wealth is tied to asset prices rather than pure economic expansion. UBS defines wealth as financial and real assets, principally housing, minus debts. At current exchange rates, the $1 million threshold equates to roughly €875,000.
The bank notes that millionaire creation often depends on how close households were to the threshold the prior year, alongside structural drivers like home ownership rates, private retirement savings and tax incentives. This suggests that markets with favorable property and savings regimes will continue to mint new millionaires even amid moderate GDP growth.
The disparity between Eastern and Western European growth rates reflects the size of existing wealth pools. Western Europe already houses nearly 15 million millionaires, a quarter of the global total, meaning lower percentage gains still yield tens of thousands of new entrants.
The US remains the dominant force, adding 441,078 millionaires to house over 40% of the global total. Yet the European data points to a remarkably broad-based appreciation of assets across the continent. “More people moving up the wealth ladder, stronger ranks at the top, and steady growth across a remarkably wide field of markets,” the report said.
