UAE, The Wealth Haven as the Middle Eastern country continues to host Millionaires
The United Arab Emirates is topping the Global Millionaires Migration Chart with an expected 9,800 high net worth individuals looking to make the country their residence. UAE’s regulatory reforms and tax free lifestyle are possible positives for the migration.
Millionaires and potential migrants to grow their wealth from UK, India, South-East Asia, Russia, Africa are also motivated by the dispersion of Golden Visa by the UAE in opting the country as the World’s most sought after country.
According to Henley and Partners’ Wealth Migration Report 2025, UAE tops the list followed closely by the USA with 7, 500 new wealthy migrants expected in 2025. Another country from the Middle East that makes it to the Top 5 in the list is Saudi Arabia which has made a huge jump and is expected to have 2,400 wealthy personalities queueing for migration. Most of the progress seems to be from return of investments from nationals and internationals in Jeddah and Riyadh.
UAE’s rising status as the global top seed in hosting private wealth in the brink of war tension in the Middle East puts the country’s reliance and prosperity in building a sustainable and favourable hub for the HNWI in 2025. Adding on to the factor are business friendly government policies, constant planning for foreign investments in multiple futuristic sectors ensuring growth.
The World Wealth Migration Report 2025 Rankings
| Country | Expected Millionaire Migration |
| UAE | +9,800 |
| USA | +7,500 |
| Italy | +3,600 |
| Switzerland | +3,000 |
| Saudi Arabia | +2,400 |
| Singapore | +1,600 |
| Portugal | +1,400 |
| Greece | +1,200 |
| Canada | +1,000 |
| Australia | +1,000 |
UAE’s Ascent in welcoming HNWIs
Many global reports in business and general perspective have placed UAE as the top leader, making it a preferential country for Multi-millionaires to settle in. highly due to the personal tax incentives, high quality of life, friendly policies and the opportunity to progress.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are some of the top sought after cities for relocations by HNWIs. Dubai in the past decade has doubled the number of living millionaires, a similar report by Henley & Partners in April found, making it one of the fastest growing cities as a wealth hub.
The report suggested that in 2024, Dubai had an estimated 81,200 millionaires, 237 centimillionaires, whose wealth is in the hundreds of millions – and 20 billionaires, a significant increase from 2023 which had 72,500 millionaires, 212 centimillionaires and 15 billionaires.
UK’s descent and Montenegro’s Millionaire Growth
The report also had an alarming number of Millionaires from the UK outflowing and looking for the Middle East and the US for relocation. The numbers are a direct correlation from the 2016 Brexit indicating that UK had stable outflow of wealthy and HNWIs since.
Juereg Steffen, the Chief Executive of Henley & Partners pointed out that, “For the first time in a decade of tracking, a European country leads the world in millionaire outflows. This isn’t just about changes to the tax regime, it reflects a deepening perception among the wealthy that greater opportunity, freedom and stability lie elsewhere.
He also had a foreseen prediction that, “The long-term implications for Europe and the UK’s economic competitiveness and investment appeal are significant.”
Another report from Henley & Partners suggests that Montenegro topped the Global Millionaire Growth report in the past decade, with 124 percent growth in resident millionaires. Malta follows close with 87%, Latvia at third by 70% increase from 2014 to 2024.
