US millionaires are having a moment

The number of millionaires in the US went up by about 500,000 last year — more than any other country in the world.

America had 7.4 million “high-net-worth individuals” in 2023, up from 6.9 million in 2022, a new report from Capgemini found. The firm’s definition of a millionaire describes people with “investable assets” of at least $1 million, “excluding their primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables,” according to a summary of the report.

After troubles in the stock market in 2022, 2023 proved a better year for the wealthy, the consultancy firm wrote. The number of millionaires, as well as their cumulative worth, fell in 2022, it said.

In 2023, by contrast, “despite ongoing interest rate uncertainty and rising bond yields, equities surged along with the tech market, fueled by enthusiasm for generative AI and its potential impact on the economy,” the report said. Stock-market gains in the fourth quarter of 2023 played an outsize role.

Government spending, such as in the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, also led to greater spending in industries such as semiconductors and construction.

All that helped raise the collective wealth of millionaires in the US by 7.4% last year, Capgemini said.

Even with the increasing number of millionaires, wealth remained concentrated among a small group. Just the top 1% of the high-net-worth people covered in the report held 34% of global wealth, the report found.

The US increase in millionaires was the greatest in absolute numbers among the top 25 countries by number of millionaires, Capgemini said.

But by percentage, the number of millionaires in the US rose by 7.3% for the year — a rate exceeded by Australia, India, and Italy, though those countries each had millionaire populations only in the hundreds.

Capgemini analyzes the size and growth of wealth using its proprietary Lorenz curve methodology, which uses data from sources including the World Bank, IMF, Economist Intelligence Unit, and national governments.