WE’VE COME A long way from Dublin in the rare aul times.
Where once Molly Malone wheeled her wheelbarrow, crying cockles and mussels, now the city’s economy is booming, and international capital is flowing into the city.
And while it may not feel like it for many Dubliners, one in every 40 people in the capital is technically a millionaire, according to a new study.
Dublin ranked 10th on the list of European cities for most millionaires per capita, in a survey carried out by Spear’s magazine.
It puts the capital ahead of Venice, Paris and Brussels.
Monaco has the highest amount of millionaires with almost one in three classified as a millionaire. In second and third were Swiss banking centres Zurich and Geneva.
London has moved up in the rankings to fifth overall, with one in 29 people named as millionaires – a huge figure given its population of almost 10 million people.
Higher density than Paris or Moscow
All told, there are almost 32,000 millionaires in Dublin, along with 4,473 homeless people, thousands of working poor, and ordinary families trying to get by.
Head of Wealth Insight Oliver Williams said Liffeyside has a higher density of millionaires than many other European capitals, including Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Moscow.
Most of these have earned their wealth from Dublin’s burgeoning tech scene, which has attracted talent from both Europe and the US.
Williams said that Monaco continues to add more millionaires per capita than anywhere else and has seen its density increase by 6% in two years due to its status as a tax haven.
Michael Smurfit, regularly billed as having a fortune of over €300 million, is just one of the wealthy residents pushing up the figures in the Mediterranean enclave.
Williams added:
Such is the escalating exclusivity of the principality that only the ultra-wealthy are able to lay hands on Monegasque passports.
“London’s financial strength has also seen it rise through the rankings: it now boasts more millionaires per head than Frankfurt despite being the second most populous city on the list after New York.”
WealthInsight defines a millionaire as someone with net assets of $1 million (€902,000) or more – excluding their primary residence.
Fifth is Oslo, followed by Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Florence, Rome, and Dublin.
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