Something happened in Dubai over the past ten years, and the numbers are hard to ignore. Its millionaire population went from around 40,200 in 2014 to 81,200 by 2024, which is a jump of 102 percent. Henley & Partners published the figure in their World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2025, and nothing else on their list moved anywhere near that fast. The result: Dubai climbed three spots, from 21st to 18th, among the world’s 50 wealthiest cities. Along the way it picked up 237 centi-millionaires (people with $100 million or more in investable wealth) and 20 billionaires.
So why does money keep landing here? And is it still worth moving your own to Dubai in 2026? That’s what this report is actually about, once you get past the headline number.
Henley’s approach is simple: count high-net-worth residents in major cities, then track how that number changes over ten years. Most cities barely move. Dubai’s 102 percent jump breaks the pattern entirely.
Here’s how the rest of the list shakes out. New York still tops it, at 384,500 millionaires. San Francisco’s Bay Area follows with 342,400, and interestingly, more billionaires now call the Bay Area home than New York. Tokyo holds third, with Singapore close behind. Los Angeles overtook London for fifth, and London dropped to sixth. Out of the whole top 50, only two cities actually shed millionaires this decade: London and Moscow.
So no, Dubai isn’t catching up to New York anytime soon. It’s outgrowing it, though, and growth rate is really the number that matters here.
Two things do most of the work: tax, and residency.
Start with tax. Dubai charges nothing on personal income and nothing on capital gains. For someone managing eight or nine figures, that beats almost any return a fund manager could promise.
Then there’s residency. Buy a qualifying property, launch a business, or park money in an approved fund, and a UAE residence visa follows, often for five or ten years. No local sponsor needed, no waiting on an employer to sort the paperwork.
Stack that against courts and banks that actually work the way investors expect, plus a time zone sitting conveniently between Asia and Europe, and Dubai’s pull stops looking like a mystery.
Four groups, unevenly: residents already living here, people thinking about moving money in, local businesses, and the government keeping score.
Residents feel it first, usually through their rent or their mortgage. More wealthy arrivals means more competition for premium property, and supply in some neighborhoods hasn’t caught up. The UAE’s rental market is behaving very differently depending on which emirate you’re in right now, so location ends up mattering almost as much as timing.
For anyone weighing whether to move capital into Dubai, this report reads like a green light rather than a warning sign. You’d be joining a fast-growing pool of investors, not betting on something about to run out of steam.
Local businesses, real estate agencies, private banks, luxury retailers, are already scaling for demand that simply didn’t exist at this scale ten years back. The government’s paying attention too. Henley expects Dubai and Abu Dhabi to more than double their centi-millionaire counts by 2035, and honestly, that forecast alone explains a lot of why UAE policy keeps swinging the doors open wider instead of shutting them.
Wealthy residents don’t just appear out of nowhere. Dubai’s economy grew across construction, tourism, and financial services in the first quarter of 2026, and that growth is a big reason investors keep circling back to the city. More jobs, more demand for property, that combination is basically what convinces people to plant roots instead of packing up again.
Even the way the UAE counts its own economy is shifting. The country’s revising its GDP methodology so it actually reflects a modern, non-oil economy. Translation: officials expect the real numbers to look even stronger once the math finally matches what’s happening on the ground.
Probably, yes, if Henley’s own forecast holds up. The report expects Dubai’s centi-millionaire population to more than double by 2035, alongside Abu Dhabi and a few newer hubs scattered across Asia and Europe.
That doesn’t mean every corner of the city is a smart buy right now, though. Property prices and rents have moved unevenly across the UAE this year, some neighborhoods are cooling off, others are getting tighter by the month, and it depends entirely on where you’re looking. Take this report as a reason to look at Dubai seriously, not as a green light to grab the first listing you see. The trend’s real. The timing is still on you.
How many millionaires will live in Dubai in 2026?
Around 81,200, per the Henley & Partners 2025 report (that’s 2024 data, since these reports run a year behind). Toss in 237 centi-millionaires and 20 billionaires and you’ve got the full picture.
Why are millionaires moving to Dubai?
Tax, mostly. No personal income tax, no capital gains tax, and on top of that, a residency-by-investment system that hands out long-term visas without requiring a local sponsor.
Is Dubai the richest city in the world?
Not even close. New York’s still on top with 384,500 millionaires, San Francisco’s Bay Area right behind it. Dubai sits at 18th, but it’s outgrowing every single city ranked above it.
What counts as a centi-millionaire?
Someone holding $100 million or more in investable wealth. Their primary home doesn’t factor into that number.
Does Dubai tax personal income?
Nope. Zero personal income tax, zero capital gains tax, for individuals, that’s it.
Will Dubai’s millionaire population keep growing?
Henley & Partners seems to think so. They’re projecting the centi-millionaire count to more than double by 2035, right alongside Abu Dhabi.
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