Wealthy South Africans Leaving their Country

Data from the New World Wealth and the AfrAsia Bank has shown the latest trends in the movement of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world, including which countries are losing the most millionaires, and where they are settling.

The group said that wealth migration figures are important metrics to gauge the health of an economy, while HNWIs are defined as dollar millionaires, or those individuals with wealth of $1 million or more.

“If a country is losing a large number of HNWIs to migration, it is probably due to serious problems in that country – i.e. crime, lack of business opportunities etc. It can also be a sign of bad things to come as HNWIs are often the first people to leave – they have the means to leave unlike middle class citizens,” New World Wealth said.

“If one looks at any major country collapse in history, it is normally preceded by a migration of wealthy people away from that country. Conversely, countries that attract HNWIs tend to be very healthy and normally have low crime rates, good schools and good business opportunities.”

China topped the list of net outflows, with around 16,000 HNWIs leaving the country to settle elsewhere. This was followed by India (7,000), Russia (5,500) and Hong Kong (4,200).

The number of millionaires living in South Africa has continued to decline. As of December of 2019, there are approximately 38,400 dollar millionaires living in the country – down by 800 from the number recorded in 2019.

In the New World Wealth’s previous report, there were 39,200 millionaires recorded, which was down significantly – a loss of 4,400 millionaires – from the year before that.

While South Africa does not crack the lists for countries with the most millionaire inflows or outflows this year, the report notes that it is among a number of countries that have seen a ‘significant’ number of millionaires leaving the country in the last year.

The group said that over 100 millionaires from South Africa moved to a different country. Among inflow destinations, Portugal was highlighted as one country that proved particularly popular for South African millionaires looking to relocate.

“Portugal continues to attract a steady number of HNWIs, fuelled by its popular investor visa programme, which has attracted large numbers of HNWIs from China, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Russia over the past few years,” it said.

Common reasons why HNWIs move: