In March 2024, a report by research group the World Inequality Lab found that the wealth concentrated in the richest 1 percent of India's population is at its highest in six decades, and their share of income exceeds that of countries including Brazil and the United States.
Published Jul 30, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 30, 2025 | 12:05 PM
India, along with Africa and parts of Asia, is set to outperform in future wealth creation.
Synopsis: India is now the world’s fourth-largest hub of ultra-wealthy individuals, with its high-net-worth population projected to grow by over 42 percent by 2028. Yet, despite the surge in wealth creation, inequality has continued to rise, with the top 1 per cent now controlling over 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth. Luxury real estate and global investment are the preferred strategies among India’s elite to secure their wealth.
India is now home to one of the world’s fastest-growing populations of ultra-wealthy individuals, ranking fourth globally in terms of people with a net worth exceeding US$10 million, according to The Wealth Report 2025 by real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
In 2024, the country had 85,698 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), a number projected to rise by 42.5 percent to 122,119 by 2028.
“India is now in fourth place behind the US, China, and Japan… projected to see one of the largest percentage increases in wealthy individuals by 2028,” the report states.
The report notes that India, along with Africa and parts of Asia, is set to outperform in future wealth creation, but this growth is largely concentrated among “entrepreneurs and tech-sector professionals able to scale businesses globally.”
“This has created a start-up culture that’s been a big part of the growth story in places like India and the Philippines,” James Pomeroy, Global Economist at HSBC, notes in the report.
“These entrepreneurs can then become super wealthy, so we’re seeing a broadening out from that old Asia driven by manufacturing into a new Asia with a high-tech enterprise culture.”
Yet, despite the growth in wealth creation, India continues to see a growing gulf in equity of wealth and earnings.
In March 2024, a report by research group the World Inequality Lab found that the wealth concentrated in the richest 1 percent of India’s population is at its highest in six decades, and their share of income exceeds that of countries including Brazil and the United States.
“The ‘Billionaire Raj’ headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces,” the authors said.
By the end of 2023, India’s richest citizens owned 40.1 percent of the country’s wealth – the highest since 1961 – and their share of total income was 22.6 percent, the most since 1922, the study found.
Data from Forbes billionaire rankings show that the number of Indians with net wealth exceeding US$1 billion rose from one in 1991 to 162 in 2022.
In 2019, India added just seven new billionaires, with a total of about 141 billionaires by year-end. By 2024, India’s total had reached 191 billionaires, with 26 new entries during that year alone, according to Forbes.
The The Wealth Report 2025 identifies India as a rising “luxury real estate destination with strong demand in prime urban centres”.
“Demand for luxury residential continues to broaden across key emerging markets… led by tech and finance wealth in emerging economies including India,” the report notes.
Yet, despite growth in luxury segments, India – along with every G20 country – has missed annual housing targets for five consecutive years.
Meanwhile, the Knight Frank 150 survey, a global study of family offices managing ultra-high-net-worth wealth, sheds light on how India’s wealthiest families are safeguarding their assets.
Wealthy Indian families are becoming more globally integrated and favour real estate as a stable asset. Notably, 44 percent of global family offices surveyed – including those in India – plan to increase real estate allocations over the next 18 months. The report notes a growing appetite for private equity and venture capital as well.
“India’s family offices are maturing rapidly, combining start-up investments with traditional property and looking at intergenerational strategies,” the report states. “Succession planning and philanthropy are becoming key focus areas.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
