The New Billionaire Capital Of The World Is...

[news]

[news]

Sorry Yonkers, you're not the richest city in the world any longer. Nope. The title of the "Billionaire Capital of the World" now officially belongs to Beijing.

Newer reports, like the one that was published by Shanghai firm Hurun this month, have confirmed that Beijing now outnumbers New York for billionaires, but only by a very thin margin. The tally, as the report claims, is now 100 to 95.

The study follows on the heels of reports that surfaced claiming China had more billionaires than the U.S. did. In spite of an inflated currency and tumultuous stock market, it would appear that the Chinese finally have more billionaires in their capital city.

It should be noted that Hurun and Forbes usually have differing lists when categorizing the world's wealthiest elite. The wealth calculations being used by Hurun rely upon stock prices as of the middle of January, after the Chinese stock market dived over 40%. Were they made previous to the landslide, the firm claims they would have shown 150 billionaires.

Just last year, Hurun says, Beijing gained 32 new billionaires. New York, by comparison, got just four. As it currently stands, Moscow sits in third with 66 billionaires, but Hong Kong has 64 and Shanghai has 50.

The wealthiest man in China is a real estate mogul named Wang Jianlin, who's ranked 21st in the world for his wealth. Meanwhile, in a close proximity to him are magnates such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma and beverage maker Zong Qinghou.

However, per capita, the billionaires aside, Forbes has an interesting list of the world's richest nations.

Qatar ranks in first place with a GDP per capita of $88,222, Luxemburg is second at $81,466, and Singapore is third at $56,694. The U.S. comes in seventh at $46,860. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is ranked eighth at $45,944. (Bear in mind these Forbes numbers are dated to 2009.)

So what does it take to be ranked in the top 1% of wealth in the U.S. currently?

According to the Federal Reserve, you'd have to have net assets worth $7 million or greater. A rather absurd notion given that CNN Money reported that the average American family earned just $53,675 last year.

Here's to thinking big.

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