It pays to be in the technology, financial services or healthcare industries, says a survey published in Capgemini's annual World Wealth Report released Thursday.
The report, which measures trends in global wealth and high net worth individuals, predicts that through 2025 the top 3 industries most likely to increase HNWI's wealth the greatest are, in order: financial services, high-tech (including Fintech operations), and healthcare.
Consulting firm Capgemini classifies high net worth individuals as anyone having "investable assets" of $1 million or more. These findings were based on a survey of more than 800 wealth managers, who work in the financial services industry at banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Santander and others.
How do the world's more than 1,800 billionaires stack up to these predictions? Currently, the top industries where billionaires have built their fortunes are finance and investments (15%) and fashion and retail (12%). Real estate, technology and manufacturing are all tied at 9%. Healthcare is not far behind though, 6% have built their wealth through that industry.
Notably in the survey, education was ranked in seventh place, just behind communications, ahead of mining and agriculture, out of 16 industries. In last place? Accommodation and food services. FORBES tracks billionaires in both the food & beverage and the service industry and combined those billionaires make up 11% of everyone on the list. The smallest sector among billionaires, with just 1%, or 23 billionaires, counted is the sports industry.
Additionally, the survey also noted that the top four markets expected to drive wealth growth over the next decade are China, the United States, India and the United Kingdom. When asked for comment on the U.K.'s Brexit decision, authors of the study said: “We have not done a thorough analysis of the impact and there are too many factors at play to make any predictions on the impact of wealth at this point.”
Those four countries currently make up 62% of the world's billionaires in tech, finance and healthcare. The U.S. holds the bulk, 227 in those industries and China in second with 71. India has 30 and the U.K. has the lowest with only 11 billionaires. The U.S. also currently holds the most billionaires in both tech (73) and finance (133), while China holds the most billionaires in healthcare (25).
Boston Consulting Group also released on report on the state of wealth in early June.
Other important findings include:
- The amount of cash high net worth individuals are holding on to is higher than ever. Nearly a quarter of their wealth, according to this research, is kept as physical cash or in retail bank accounts. Why? People are using it to protect themselves from another recession and also to fund their lifestyle.
- Interest in social impact investments is on the rise. Capgemini reports that now 31% of HNWI investment portfolios are focused on causes like sustainable trade or clean energy.
- Despite the recession, in the 20 years that Capgemini has conducted its research, global high net worth individuals' wealth grew nearly four times since its first report.
