New data highlights some key wealth management markets, including the world’s second largest economy.

China has seen the fastest growth in terms of private wealth over the past 15 years, with Australia and India also growing at impressive rates, according to research by New World Wealth.

The US topped NWW’s ranking of countries by total individual wealth, with $48.9 trillion, followed by China with $17.4 trillion, much of which is believed to come from family businesses. (Click here for a recent article on opportunities arising from China’s wealth boom, covering the importance of intergenerational wealth planning.) In third place in the ranking is Japan with $15.1 trillion. 

Over the past year, India, Canada and Australia have overtaken Italy to take seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively. Australia’s total individual wealth of $4.5 trillion is noteworthy considering the country only has a population of 22 million. 

India, with a total individual wealth of $5.6 trillion, has enjoyed a renewed bout of optimism over the last couple of years under the reform-led administration of its prime minister, Narendra Modi, though concerns of structural constraints linger. The number of Indian high net worth individuals – measured as those with net assets of at least $1 million – surged by 55 per cent to 236,000 last year from 2007, and their combined wealth rose 67 per cent to $1.5 trillion over that period, according to NWW data.

In a separate ranking of countries by average wealth per person, small tax havens such as Monaco and Liechtenstein topped the list. Monaco, a hotspot on the French Riviera where residents pay no income tax, has the highest average wealth per capita, at $1.5 million. The country operates as an offshore centre for the European wealth sector, attracting wealthy financiers. Around 2,200 of Monaco’s 40,000 residents are worth over $10 million and apartments there are the most expensive in the world per square meter, NWW said.

Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Australia follow with an average wealth per person of $610,000, $284,000 and $203,000 respectively. The UK’s position in ninth place, with an average per capita wealth of $147,000, is largely due to the high value of real estate in the country.