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It's official: the Big Apple is the Richie Rich capital of the world, with more millionaires than Cincinnati has residents.

New York has held on to its title as the world's wealthiest city in 2022, according to the rankings devised by investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners. But while the city was reportedly home to 340,000 millionaires last year, even objectively wealthy New Yorkers were feeling the financial pinch of living in the millionaire's playground that never sleeps.

Economic Fairytale of New York

Around 4 million pigeons also live in NYC according to New York-New Jersey Wildlife Removal, which would mean the city's millionaire population is around 8.5% of its pigeon population. That's a pretty high density and a feather in NYC's cap given it's losing ground in some other demographic areas. Earlier this year, it lost the top spot on the Bureau of Statistics' rankings of total jobs to Florida.

Meanwhile, on the slightly less-wealthy-but-still-pretty-wealthy end of the spectrum, all's not entirely well:

  • An analysis this week by SmartAsset found that, in terms of purchasing power and adjusting for the local cost of living, NYC workers on six-figure salaries need to make $300,000 in order to feel like they're making $100,000.
  • SmartAsset's analysis suggested someone making $125,000 in Houston, Texas would have the same purchasing power as someone making $312,000 in NYC.

While NYC has the most millionaires, the Bay Area has the most billionaires according to Henley & Partners. In case you were wondering, San Francisco has similar problems with relative purchasing power, according to SmartAsset.

Billionaires Bite Back: While 2022 saw the world's ten richest individuals lose a collective $575 billion as shares plunged and ominous mutterings about a possible recession did the rounds, 2023 has seen the planet's ten wealthiest billionaires regain $213 billion in net worth, so just another $362 billion to go. No biggie.