The world’s richest cities have been ranked – and here’s where Sydney landed on the elite list in 2024

It’s a sad reality that most Sydneysiders are hardly swimming in cash right now. But while we’re trying to navigate this cost-of-living crisis, it seems our millionaire population is somehow multiplying. In the midst of this wallet-wringing chaos, the world’s wealthiest cities have been announced for 2024 – and Sydney came in at number eight. 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 2024, with Sydney and Melbourne both ranking in the top 20. 

Sydney jumped up in the rankings – from tenth wealthiest city in the world in 2023 to eighth this year. Over the past decade, the Emerald City’s millionaire population has grown a massive 34 per cent. Our city is now home to 147,000 millionaires (in US dollars), 205 centi-millionaires and 20 billionaires. (Not you? Us neither.) That said, we guess a million bucks doesn't buy you a heap in Sydney these days.

Which leads us to another aspect of the report – it also revealed that Sydney is the sixth most expensive city to live in globally (that part doesn't surprise you, does it?).The only cities to rank above us were Monaco, NYC, London, Hong Kong and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in France. 

Topping the rich list for yet another year was New York City. The Big Apple has a whopping total wealth of $3 trillion USD – more than $4.5 trillion in Aussie dollars – with a total of 349,500 millionaires, 744 centi-millionaires and 60 billionaires. The runner-up on the world's wealthiest cities list was then US's Bay Area (including San Francisco and Silicon Valley), with Tokyo, Singapore and London rounding out the top five. 

Our friends down in Melbourne came in at 15th place, with 97,900 millionaires, 112 centi-millionaires and 10 billionaires. Meanwhile, Perth and Brisbane also snuck into the rankings, claiming 34th and 42nd place, respectively. 

Here are the top 15 wealthiest cities in the world:

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Tokyo
4. Singapore
5. London
6. Los Angeles
7. Paris
8. Sydney
9. Hong Kong
10. Beijing
11. Shanghai
12. Chicago
13. Toronto
14. Milan and Lombardy
15. Melbourne

You can read about Henley & Partners’ report in more detail here. And if you're not part of Sydney's rich list, you might like to check our readers’ top tips for living on a budget in the Harbour City over here.

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