There’s no denying that most of us Aussies aren’t exactly swimming in cash right now. Yet, in the midst of this wallet-wringing chaos, the world’s wealthiest cities have boldly released their rankings for 2025. That’s right: while we’re all trying to navigate this cost-of-living rollercoaster, it seems our millionaire population is somehow multiplying.
Every year, wealth migration firm Henley and Partners releases its World’s Wealthiest Cities Report, which ranks the top 50 wealthiest cities based on the number of millionaires (and billionaires) who live there. Four Australian capital cities made the rich list in 2025, with Sydney and Melbourne both ranking in the top 20.
Topping the rich list for yet another year is New York City. The Big Apple has a whopping total wealth of $3 trillion USD and counting – more than $4.5 trillion in Aussie dollars – with a total of 384,500 millionaires, 818 centi-millionaires and 66 billionaires. The runner-up on the world's wealthiest cities list was the Bay Area (including San Francisco and Silicon Valley), with Tokyo, Singapore and Los Angeles rounding out the top five.
Sydney dropped one spot in the rankings – from the eighth wealthiest city in the world in 2024 to ninth this year. Over the past decade, the Emerald City’s millionaire population has grown a massive 28 per cent, now being home to 152,900 millionaires, 224 centi-millionaires and 22 billionaires – and that's all in USD, suggesting an even higher figure in Aussie dollars. The same report also revealed Sydney as the seventh most expensive city to live in globally, following Monaco, NYC, Hong Kong, London, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Paris.
Melbourne also dropped from 15th place in 2024 to 16th place in 2025 – now home to 94,000 millionaires, 108 centi-millionaires and 12 billionaires. Meanwhile, Perth and Brisbane also snuck into the top 50, claiming 34th and 43rd place, respectively.
Here are the top 20 wealthiest cities in the world:
- New York
- The Bay Area
- Tokyo
- Singapore
- Los Angeles
- London
- Paris
- Hong Kong
- Sydney
- Chicago
- Milan
- Beijing
- Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe
- Shanghai
- Toronto
- Melbourne
- Houston
- Dubai
- Frankfurt
- Zurich
You can read about Henley and Partners’ report in more detail here.
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