A booming year for markets did what booming markets do: it made a lot of already-wealthy people wealthier — and turned nearly a million of them into millionaires.

Global personal wealth rose 10.8% in 2025, the fastest pace in at least three years, and the world minted close to one million new dollar millionaires — more than 2,600 a day — according to UBS's Global Wealth Report 2026. The total number of millionaires worldwide now stands at roughly 57.5 million.

America led the way

The United States accounted for nearly half of the new millionaires, adding more than 440,000 — over 1,200 a day — Fortune reported, citing the report. That lifts the U.S. millionaire population above 23.6 million, more than 40% of the global total, per the report.

The driver was straightforward: strong financial markets. In the U.S., a large share of household wealth sits in financial assets — stocks, retirement accounts and brokerage holdings — so when equity markets rallied, those gains flowed to the people who already owned the most. A weaker U.S. dollar also flattered wealth measured in other currencies. (A dollar millionaire is someone whose total net worth — assets minus debts — tops $1 million; it includes home equity and investments, not just cash.)

Broad, but top-heavy

The gains were unusually widespread by one measure: UBS said the millionaire population grew in every one of the 56 markets it tracks — the first time that has happened. Yet the report's more sobering finding sits beneath the averages. While average wealth climbed, median wealth — the level of the typical household in the middle — fell in most countries.

That gap between the average and the median is the story. Averages are pulled upward by big gains at the top, so they can rise even as the person in the middle treads water or slips back. UBS's data show wealth continuing to concentrate: the number of billionaires rose about 13% to roughly 3,300, Yahoo Finance reported, and even within the millionaire class the richest have compounded their wealth faster than "everyday millionaires" with $1 million to $5 million.

Why it matters

For households, the report is a reminder that the wealth created by a market boom is distributed by who already owns assets — so a record year for millionaires can coexist with a decline in typical household wealth. For investors and policymakers, the widening gap between average and median wealth is the kind of data that fuels debates over inequality, taxation and access to investing. And for the broader economy, UBS's own framing is telling: future gains, it suggested, will "increasingly depend on access to investable assets" — in other words, on whether you own stocks at all. Boursel gives no investment advice; the takeaway is that 2025 was a banner year for wealth at the top, built largely on rising markets, even as the middle lost a little ground.