Nearly one million people became millionaires in 2025, largely thanks to a thriving stock market, according to a new report by UBS.
The Swiss bank estimated that the United States is responsible for nearly half of these newly minted millionaires, adding an average of more than 1,200 new millionaires a day last year for an annual increase of about 441,000.
Stock market gains boosted global personal wealth by 10.8%, the biggest jump since 2017 and more than double the rate of 2024 and 2023, UBS found. However, this robust growth was belied by declines in median wealth in most of the 56 markets monitored by UBS, pointing to a growing wealth gap.
In the U.S., for example, median wealth per adult dropped nearly 20% from 2020 to 2025, while average wealth increased by about 10% over the same period of time, net of inflation, according to the bank’s data analysis.
UBS estimated that the world’s millionaire population, which the bank puts at 58 million, owns nearly half of the world’s wealth, or approximately $250.6 trillion.
UBS economist James Mazeau told CNBC that richer individuals reaped bigger gains compared with the broader population last year as they have more exposure to financial markets, noting that the U.S. stock market rose by approximately 18% in 2025.
“The higher you go in the wealth bands, the more wealth creation will tend to be linked to either the performance of your business or your investment portfolio — or both,” Mazeau said at a media conference.
Distribution of millionaires worldwide
More than 40% of the world’s millionaires, or nearly 24 million people, live in the U.S.
The doughnut chart shows the share of millionaires around the world, parsed by global region, as of 2025.
