Leading Authority on China's Wealthy Counts 960,000 ‘Millionaires’, up 9.7%, with Beijing Home to Most
GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2011, Hurun in association with GroupM Knowledge
- One Person in Every 1400 in China has at least 10 Million Yuan
- China has 960,000 individuals with personal wealth of 10 million Yuan, up 9.7% on 2010
- Beijing home to 170,000 millionaires
- 42% live in Eastern China
- 55% are business owners, 20% property speculators, 15% stock market gurus and 10% salaried executives.
- China has 60,000 super-rich with 100 million Yuan, up 9.0% on 2010
(12 April 2011, Shanghai) Hurun Report, renowned for its annual ‘China Rich List’, today released the GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2011, detailing the number of millionaires broken down by region across China. This is the third year of the report. The GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2011 is released in association with GroupM Knowledge, the knowledge management arm of GroupM, the world's number one media investment management operation.
China has 960,000 ‘millionaires’ with personal wealth of 10 million Yuan or more (GBP 950,000/ EUR 1.1 million/ USD 1.5 million), up 85,000 individuals or 9.7% year on year. In 2009, there were 825,000 millionaires, growing last year to 875,000.
“For most luxury brands, the Chinese luxury consumer is now Number One: either representing the biggest market share or the fastest-growing,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, a leading luxury business magazine in China. “The GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2011 provides an insight into how wealth is spread around the country.”
Lucy Zhang, Futures Director of GroupM Knowledge, says that luxury consumption will remain the main driver of consumer market growth in China in the next 5 years. The burgeoning wealthy elite and their transforming consumption pattern fuel the prosperity of luxury industry. It has never been more important to understand the real rich people here.
Rising property prices and a fast-growing GDP have been the key drivers for the growth in the number of these millionaires. Property prices in 2010 rose across the country by 13.7% according to a government report, with luxury property prices rising even faster.
Where the Chinese Luxury Consumer Lives
|
No. of millionaires* |
% |
Beijing |
170,000 |
17.7% |
Guangdong |
157,000 |
16.4% |
Shanghai |
132,000 |
13.8% |
Zhejiang |
126,000 |
13.1% |
Jiangsu |
68,000 |
7.1% |
Fujian |
36,000 |
3.8% |
Shandong |
33,000 |
3.4% |
Liaoning |
29,000 |
3.0% |
Sichuan |
24,000 |
2.5% |
Henan |
16,500 |
1.7% |
Others |
168,500 |
17.6% |
Total |
960,000 |
100.0% |
* Individuals in China with personal wealth of 10 million Yuan or more
Regional Distribution
|
Number of Millionaires |
|
East China |
412,500 |
43.0% |
North China |
228,000 |
23.8% |
South China |
166,000 |
17.3% |
North East |
47,500 |
4.9% |
West China |
44,400 |
4.6% |
Central China |
43,500 |
4.5% |
North West |
18,100 |
1.9% |
Total |
960,000 |
100.0% |
Of the 960,000 millionaires, 55% derived their wealth from their private business. 20% are property speculators, who have ridden the fast hike in home prices. 15% are stock market gurus, who are also the youngest with an average age of 38. The remaining 10% are high earning salaried executives.The Chinese millionaire is born in 1972, and today is 39 years, a full fifteen years younger than their Western counterparts.30% of the millionaires are female.
“China’s millionaires are fast becoming sophisticated and aspire towards higher social status” said Rupert Hoogewerf. “Four out of five millionaires, for example, are thinking of sending their children to study overseas, with the US and UK their preferred destinations. The richer they are, the younger they seem to want to send their children overseas.”
60,000 Super Rich
China has 60,000 ‘super rich’ with 100 million Yuan or more, up 9.0% on last year.
Beijing leads the way with 10,000 individuals followed by Guangdong with 9,000 and Shanghai with 7,800.
The average age of the super rich is 43 years. These super rich tend to own three properties, five luxury watches and four cars. There has been a surge of interest in drinking fine wines and collecting art, especially Chinese classical art. This year they are looking to add a holiday home, with Sanya their destination of choice.
Hidden Wealth
“There is still a great deal of hidden wealth in the Chinese economy," said Rupert Hoogewerf. “We estimate there to be 4000 Renminbi billionaires in China, with only a third making the Hurun Rich List.”
The Pyramid of Wealth in China

Methodology
The GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report is designed to identify the number of individuals in Mainland China with personal wealth of more than 10 million Yuan and individuals with more than 100 million Yuan, broken down across the country by region. Unlike other wealth reports, the report takes into account all private wealth, including privately-held businesses, private residences and investable assets.
The Hurun Research Institute carried out the research using both a ‘bottoms-up’ and ‘top-down’ approach. For the ‘bottoms-up’ approach, the Institute looked at the number of key investment and spending indicators of Mainland Chinese. These included the number of individual properties by region worth 5 million yuan and 10 million yuan, the number of luxury cars purchased in the last three years costing 500,000 yuan or more, the number of high bracket income tax payers, company registered capital, etc… For the ‘top-down’ approach, the Institute applied the Gini coefficient measuring income distribution to the 2010 China GDP and 2009 China GNP.
Hurun Report would like to thank the many people involved who made this report possible including Soufun.com and eHouse.
GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2011
Rich and Super-Rich Broken down by Region
|
No. of Millionaires* |
Rank |
Increase of Indiv. |
|
No. of Super Rich** |
Increase of Indiv. |
Total |
960,000 |
|
85,000 |
|
60,000 |
5,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beijing |
170,000 |
1 |
19,000 |
|
10,000 |
600 |
Guangdong |
157,000 |
2 |
12,000 |
|
9,000 |
800 |
Shenzhen |
49,300 |
|
4,300 |
|
3,300 |
190 |
Guangzhou |
53,500 |
|
3,700 |
|
4,000 |
140 |
Dongguan |
14,600 |
|
na |
|
840 |
na |
Shanghai |
132,000 |
3 |
10,000 |
|
7,800 |
500 |
Zhejiang |
126,000 |
4 |
9,500 |
|
7,450 |
690 |
Hangzhou |
51,500 |
|
4,200 |
|
2,850 |
260 |
Wenzhou |
22,000 |
|
1,600 |
|
2,330 |
200 |
Ningbo |
14,700 |
|
1,200 |
|
950 |
90 |
Jiangsu |
68,000 |
5 |
5,400 |
|
4,600 |
300 |
Nanjing |
24,000 |
|
1,900 |
|
1,800 |
120 |
Suzhou |
16,900 |
|
1,300 |
|
990 |
60 |
Fujian |
36,000 |
6 |
2,500 |
|
2,200 |
100 |
Fuzhou |
11,000 |
|
700 |
|
560 |
20 |
Xiamen |
12,200 |
|
800 |
|
660 |
20 |
Shandong |
33,000 |
7 |
2,500 |
|
1,900 |
180 |
Qingdao |
12,000 |
|
900 |
|
620 |
50 |
Yantai |
1,700 |
|
na |
|
110 |
na |
Liaoning |
29,000 |
8 |
2,200 |
|
1,920 |
210 |
Dalian |
11,900 |
|
900 |
|
750 |
60 |
Shenyang |
8,340 |
|
680 |
|
560 |
50 |
Sichuan |
24,000 |
9 |
1,900 |
|
1,700 |
180 |
Chengdu |
14,500 |
|
1,000 |
|
800 |
70 |
Henan |
16,500 |
10 |
1,300 |
|
1,150 |
110 |
Tianjin |
16,000 |
11 |
1,500 |
|
1,180 |
150 |
Hebei |
15,500 |
12 |
1,000 |
|
1,200 |
90 |
Shanxi |
14,000 |
13 |
700 |
|
1,250 |
140 |
Hubei |
13,500 |
14 |
1,000 |
|
1,000 |
100 |
Wuhan |
4,710 |
|
na |
|
350 |
na |
Hunan |
13,500 |
14 |
1,000 |
|
760 |
90 |
Shaanxi |
13,000 |
16 |
2,000 |
|
760 |
80 |
Xi’an |
4,190 |
|
na |
|
260 |
na |
Inner Mongolia |
12,500 |
17 |
2,300 |
|
790 |
90 |
Chongqing |
11,500 |
18 |
1,800 |
|
730 |
80 |
Heilongjiang |
11,000 |
19 |
1,400 |
|
730 |
60 |
Harbin |
6,740 |
|
950 |
|
410 |
40 |
Jiangxi |
9,000 |
20 |
800 |
|
760 |
80 |
Anhui |
8,500 |
21 |
1,400 |
|
850 |
90 |
Jilin |
7,500 |
22 |
1,200 |
|
480 |
50 |
Yunnan |
5,500 |
23 |
700 |
|
500 |
70 |
Guangxi |
5,000 |
24 |
400 |
|
370 |
40 |
Hainan |
4,000 |
25 |
500 |
|
160 |
30 |
Guizhou |
3,000 |
26 |
300 |
|
260 |
20 |
Xinjiang |
3,000 |
26 |
400 |
|
240 |
30 |
Ningxia |
800 |
28 |
100 |
|
90 |
10 |
Gansu |
700 |
29 |
50 |
|
80 |
10 |
Qinghai |
600 |
30 |
100 |
|
50 |
10 |
Tibet |
400 |
31 |
50 |
|
40 |
10 |
* Individuals with personal wealth of 10 million Yuan or more
** Individuals with personal wealth of 100 million Yuan or more