Despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacting businesses globally, India has the third highest number of billionaires in the world, Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2022 shows. The population of billionaires in the country grew by 24% to 145 billionaires in 2020-21 alone. India also has a high number of ultra high-net worth individuals (UHNWI) — that is, individuals whose net worth is over USD 30 million. An individual whose net worth is over USD 1 million is categorised as a high-net worth individual.
The 2022 report also shows that, in India, the number of UHNWIs grew by 11% YoY (year-on-year) in 2021, and that this population is predicted to shoot up by 39% in the next five years. Further, a significant number of UNHWIs in India — about 69% of them — expect their wealth to grow by over 10% in 2022. Among Indian cities, Hyderabad has the second largest number of UHNWIs after Mumbai with 467, followed by other cities like Bengaluru (352), Delhi (315) and Chennai (264). In Bengaluru, the UNHWI population is expected to grow by a whopping 88.9% to 665 by 2026, while Hyderabad is expected to have 728 ultra wealthy individuals by 2026.
Further, over the next five years, Knight Frank’s report predicts that the global UHNWIs population will grow by a further 28%, with Asia and Australasia (+33% each) seeing the largest growth, followed by North America (+28%) and Latin America (+26%). The number of UHNWI population in India is expected to grow by 39% between 2021- 2026, with 19,006 people expected to have net assets of USD 30 million or more by 2026.
In the last 5 years for the major markets, Delhi has witnessed an increase of 101.2% in the UHNWI population followed by Mumbai (+42.6%) and Bengaluru (+22.7%). However, in the next 5 years, Bengaluru is projected to witness an increase of 89% in the UHNWI population and become home to 665 ultra-wealthy individuals by 2026.
“With a healthy growth in the UHNWI and Billionaire population, India is expected to be one of the fastest growing countries amongst its global peers, further strengthening itself economically and emerging as a superpower in different sectors,” Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India, said.
2021 also saw the most startup unicorns — with 43 unicorns minted last year alone. 17 of those unicorns were in Bengaluru. Overall, India's Silicon Valley has over 35 startups that are unicorns. Hyderabad, on the other hand, has seen a steady increase in the number of billionaires as well, with pharma barons as well as those in real estate.