Singapore home to 32 billionaires

SINGAPORE – There are now 32 billionaires in Singapore, with a combined wealth of S$65 billion, according to the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014 released today (Sept 17). This marks an 18.5 per cent increase from 27 billionaires last year – higher than the worldwide growth of 7 per cent.

Singapore has the third-largest billionaire population in Asia, behind Hong Kong and Beijing, and is the 19th largest in the world out of a total 2,325 billionaires, the report said. The United States remains as the country with the largest population of billionaires, with 571 billionaires and a combined wealth of US$2.26 trillion.

Singapore also has the sixth highest number of billionaires per capita in the world, with 5.8 billionaires per million people. This is almost 20 times fewer than Liechtenstein, which is ranked top at 125 billionaires per million people. Hong Kong is top in Asia for billionaire density, with 11.2 billionaires per million people.

The report also stated that 65.6 per cent of billionaires in Singapore were born overseas. In comparison, no billionaires in Liechtenstein are foreign-born, while all billionaires in Bermuda and Luxembourg were born elsewhere.

About 91 per cent of Singapore’s billionaires have at least partially made their own wealth, and 75 per cent of their primary businesses are privately owned. The report also stated that 16 per cent of Singapore’s billionaires have no formal education beyond high school, while 88 per cent of them are active philanthropists.

CHANNEL NEWSASIA