By Abby Schultz

Strong financial markets fueled enormous gains in wealth last year, as the rich got richer by even bigger margins, according to the annual UBS Global Wealth Report published on Tuesday.

Global personal wealth jumped 10.8% in 2025, topping gains of 4.6% a year earlier and 4.3% in 2023, and the number of millionaires in U.S. dollar terms rose by one million individuals, expanding in every market tracked by UBS. It was the fastest rate of growth in wealth since 2017.

One reason for the striking uptick last year was the strong performance of U.S. stocks — the S&P 500 gained 16.34% for its third consecutive year of gains — and the fact people across the world invest in U.S. markets.

Those investments allowed individuals in Europe and elsewhere to benefit from the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, James Mazeau, an economist at UBS in Zurich, said in an interview. In 2025, the WSJ Dollar Index fell 6.65%, its largest percentage drop since the end of 2017, according to Dow Jones Markets.

"If you are a foreign or a European-based investor and you want exposure to tech, there's no real alternative but to invest in the U.S. market," Mazeau says. "That's what we always recommend to our clients, is to invest in the U.S. market to capture these growth opportunities."

The effect of this strategy was clear. In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, personal wealth surged 17.5%, the report said. By comparison, personal wealth for those in the U.S. rose 8.5%, while in Asia-Pacific, the growth rate was just under 6%.

Although UBS's data revealed a "broad uplift in living standards" — nonfinancial wealth such as residential property rose too — it also showed a growing gap between rich and poor as median wealth declined in most markets across the world.

Rising wealth among the richest adults in the U.S., for instance, pulls the average wealth per adult to $696,277 — second in the world behind Switzerland, with average wealth of $910,382.

But median wealth in the U.S., reflecting the point at which half the population is better off than the other, is only $68,998, ranking the U.S. 28 out of 30 countries tracked by UBS. Switzerland's median wealth is $145,555, ranking it No. 8.

At the same time, UBS's data show more people are moving up the wealth ladder. The proportion of individuals in the lowest wealth bracket — below $10,000 — fell to just over 42% last year from nearly 75% in 2000. UBS expects this trend to continue and to make the shape of the global wealth pyramid obsolete before the end of the decade.

"Individuals are moving from the lowest wealth bracket to the next one higher up, year after year, with very few exceptions," UBS said.

The question for every person is "how better off are you compared to previous generations?" Mazeau says. "People's income position in many developed countries hasn't really changed in the past decades, Still, the perception of where you stand in society has. That maybe has to do with the rise of social media — people comparing themselves [to one another] much more. In the end, it's perception that matters."

The UBS report defines wealth as the value of financial assets and real assets, which for most people means housing, less any debts. A recent report from the Capgemini Research Institute found wealth among those with $1 million in investible assets gained 8.7% last year to $98.3 trillion.

Globally, only 1.5% of adults have $1 million or more, but that represents 48.4% of global wealth, or $250.6 trillion, within the 56 countries surveyed, which as Mazeau says, is biased toward the wealthiest nations.

Though the rate of growth in the number of millionaires continues to be striking, UBS shined a light on adults with wealth between $5 million and $100 million. There are now more than seven million people globally with wealth of that magnitude, with 4.1 million of those individuals in the U.S., UBS said. China ranks second with 516,000 individuals.

The ranks of these multimillionaires has expanded globally since 2000 in every bracket tracked by UBS as their collective wealth soared at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% in nominal dollars, or 6.1% adjusted for inflation. The mere millionaires saw their wealth grow at an annual rate of 4% adjusted for inflation since the start of the millennium, UBS said.

The rate of growth has been most drastic in China, where the number of adults in wealth brackets above $5 million expanded by nearly 23% to 25.9% since 2000, while their wealth grew 23% to nearly 31%. The only market tracked by UBS that didn't experience gains in the $5 million to $100 million segment was Japan. A big factor: the yen's significant depreciation against the U.S. dollar, UBS said.

Meanwhile, the number of billionaires in the world rose 13.1% between April 2025 and April 2026 to 3,302, while their wealth climbed nearly 25%, on average, according to UBS. Most billionaires own assets of less than $50 billion but an elite group of 19 have more than $100 billion — 15 of them are based in the U.S.

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

Corrections & Amplifications

UBS surveyed 56 countries for its global wealth survey. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the firm surveyed 66 countries.