A recent report from Swiss bank UBS reveals a rapid rise in the number of millionaires worldwide, with 680,000 new individuals surpassing the one-million-dollar wealth threshold just in the past year.
This equates to more than one new millionaire every minute. These individuals are often referred to as EMILLIs, short for “everyday millionaires,” with the Czech equivalent being EMIL.
People classified as EMILLIs have personal wealth exceeding one million US dollars (around 21.66 million Czech koruna). The number of such wealthy individuals is expanding quickly, and the Czech Republic hosts a significant portion of them — enough to equal the population of a small regional city.
UBS’s annual global wealth report, which draws on data from 56 affluent countries, recorded a 1.2% increase in EMILLIs last year. Though modest in percentage terms, this growth translates to hundreds of thousands of new millionaires.
Today, acquiring this level of wealth can be as straightforward as owning a spacious apartment in Prague alongside a well-appointed house in a desirable area. Worldwide, more than 56 million people meet this criterion — a figure comparable to Italy’s population.
The largest segment consists of those with wealth between one and five million dollars, which reached 52 million individuals last year—quadruple the number from 2000. The total wealth held by EMILLIs also grew fourfold, topping $107 trillion, according to UBS. Both the number of millionaires and their combined assets are projected to rise further.
UBS highlights that while these everyday millionaires rarely attract public attention, they represent a powerful and significant demographic. Most media focus instead on billionaires, the wealthiest of the wealthy who dominate headlines and lead major global corporations.
Currently, UBS estimates there are 2,860 billionaires worldwide. Forbes lists a similar figure, with 2,933 billionaires globally, including 11 from the Czech Republic. Notable Czech billionaires include Renáta Kellnerová, Karel Komárek, and Daniel Křetínský, with recent rankings also naming arms manufacturer Michal Strnad.
The majority of global wealth and millionaires are concentrated in the United States and China, reflecting their large populations and robust economies.
While the UBS report covers the Czech Republic, it offers limited specifics on smaller countries and does not provide exact millionaire counts by nation. It notes a slight decline in the number of millionaires for countries like the Czech Republic, Japan, and Germany in 2023, with the Czech Republic experiencing a 1.5% drop.
The report does not explain this decrease, though one factor could be the strengthening of the US dollar against the Czech koruna last year, similar to patterns seen with the Japanese yen.
Contrasting views come from J&T Bank, which tracks wealth trends in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and estimates between 30,000 and 35,000 individuals in the Czech Republic have net assets exceeding one million dollars.
