Abu Dhabi, Dubai among world’s top 15 cities for wealthy households

Abu Dhabi and Dubai rank among the world’s top 15 cities with the highest number of households earning over $250,000 annually (as of 2017), a new report by Knight Frank has found.

Regionally, the UAE capital topped the list with 270,686 households earning more than $250,000. Overall, the emirate ranked 11th on the list, just behind London. The number of such households is further forecast to grow to 426,890, overtaking London’s 382,807 by 2027.

The number of households earning more than $250,000 in Dubai currently stands at 245,272 and is expected to increase to 36,432 by 2027. Dubai was ranked just behind Abu Dhabi globally in 12th place.

Following immediately after Dubai on the global rankings were the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah with 198,789 and 130,849 households respectively earning more than $250,000.

The report also found that Abu Dhabi ranks seventh globally on the list of cities that are expected to see the strongest growth in households earning over $250,000 between 2017 and 2022. The emirate is anticipated to see its wealthiest households increase by 84,067 during the five-year period.

Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah also featured among the top 15 cities, with the number of wealthy households projected to rise by 36,432, 28,592 and 19,331 respectively between 2017 to 2022.

However, despite the high number of wealthy households in the region, none of the cities from the GCC were ranked on Knight Frank’s 2018 City Wealth Index. The index ranks the top 20 cities worldwide on factors such as wealth, investment, lifestyle and future.

North American cities made up 10 of the top 20, with Asian cities occupying five spots. New York topped the index, followed by London and San Francisco.

Liam Bailey, global Head of Research at Knight Frank, said: “This year’s index produced some very interesting results with regard to the projected growth of wealthy households around the world that will be exciting to track.

“However, North America’s domination of the current household wealth tables is unequivocal.”

Cities with the highest number of households earning $250k+ (2017)

Source: Oxford Economics

Knight Frank City Wealth Index 2018 

Sources: Knight Frank, Macrobond, Wealth-X, New World Wealth, RCA, Oxford Economics, Five Star Alliance, Mastercard, Michelin, Times Higher Education, 2thinknow innovation cities index 2016-2017