The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy the ultimate flexibility for making financial and lifestyle decisions.
For many of the world’s millionaires, money provides a highly effective means to escape their home country when times get tough. They can pack their bags, and move their family and capital to a location that will provide superior opportunities for prosperity.
According to a new report by New World Wealth, this couldn’t have been truer for 2016, as the amount of millionaire migrants increased by 28% from the previous year.
Millionaire Migrants
Human and Capital Flight
In 2016, there were a total of 82,000 millionaire migrants that left for greener pastures.
The Top Five Countries (Net Outflows)
| Country | 2016 | 2015 | Change | |
| 1 | France | -12,000 | -10,000 | 20% |
| 2 | China | -9,000 | -9,000 | 0% |
| 3 | Brazil | -8,000 | -2,000 | 300% |
| 4 | India | -6,000 | -4,000 | 50% |
| 5 | Turkey | -6,000 | -1000 | 500% |
France tops the list for a second straight year, as rich people dodge conditions that they consider to be adverse. France has rising religious tensions and populism, but it also has a tax system that is not particularly friendly to the ultra rich. The International Business Times calls the ongoing problem a “Millionaire Exodus”.
China and India both continue to have net outflows of millionaires, but two of the more interesting countries on this list are Brazil and Turkey.
Brazil continues to be deep in economic crisis, with its worst-ever recession likely continuing into its eighth-straight quarter in Q4 2016. The country also recently impeached Dilma Rousseff in August 2016. On the other hand, the Washington Post describes Turkey as a country that is in a “permanent state of crisis”. This may be a fair criticism, since in 2016 there was the assassination of a Russian ambassador, a currency crisis, an economic crisis, and also an attempted military coup.
Like most people, millionaires don’t like uncertainty – and they have the wherewithal and conviction to get out of places that have ongoing issues.
The Top Five Countries (Net Inflows)
| Country | 2016 | 2015 | Increase | |
| 1 | Australia | +11,000 | +8,000 | 38% |
| 2 | USA | +10,000 | +7,000 | 43% |
| 3 | Canada | +8,000 | +5,000 | 60% |
| 4 | UAE | +5,000 | +3,000 | 67% |
| 5 | New Zealand | +4,000 | +2,000 | 100% |
In 2016, Australia was the number one destination for millionaire migrants, with the United States and Canada being close behind.
New Zealand also had the amount of net inflows double, while the UAE remained a popular location for the wealthy in the Middle East.
Article by Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist
