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San Francisco-third in the world when it comes to billionaires

 

 

The global billionaire population soared to record levels in 2017, and more of them are living in the Bay Area than ever before.

The San Francisco area now has the third-most billionaires of any region in the world — 74 in total — rising two places in the rankings and overtaking both Moscow and London, according to a 2018 billionaire census released Tuesday.

The San Francisco metropolitan area — which includes San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties — saw an additional 14 individuals attain billionaire status in 2017, accounting for almost a quarter of the overall annual growth in the U.S. billionaire population, the report states.

San Francisco has recorded the strongest growth in billionaire numbers of any U.S. city in recent years, according to the study, primarily reflecting large wealth gains in the technology sector, which has its global base in Silicon Valley.

Although much of Silicon Valley, specifically all of Santa Clara County, is not included in the San Francisco statistics, the affluent cities of Atherton, Menlo Park, Redwood City and Woodside are lumped with San Francisco.

New York and Hong Kong took the top two spots for number of billionaires with 103 and 93, respectively. New York was the world's top billionaire city in 2017, remaining the preferred location for those seeking a luxury blend of finance, culture, commerce, shopping and real estate, according to the report. New York is also home to more billionaires than every country in the world outside of China, Germany and India.

The world now has more billionaires than ever before as the global population increased to 2,754, surpassing the previous peak of 2,473.

Similarly, billionaire wealth surged by 24 percent last year to a record level of $9.2 trillion, a detail the report attributes to an upturn in the world economy and climbing equity markets.


Inside the new billionaires' club, the number of female billionaires rose by 18 percent in 2017, outpacing the growth of 14.5 percent in the male billionaire population and increasing the female share of the global billionaire population to 11.7 percent, the report states.

In terms of nations, the U.S. leads all others with 680 billionaires, which is more than the next highest three countries — China, Germany and India — combined.

The author of the report, Wealth-X, is an independent firm that released its first billionaire census in 2013, company spokesperson Mike Phillips said. The company targets individuals with $30 million or more in wealth and sells that information to interested third parties such as universities, luxury companies and private wealth managers, he said.

"We have a database with detailed dossiers on those individuals," Phillips said. "We aggregate that information to identify trends in that top tier of wealth."

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