millionaire (originally and sometimes still millionnaire

[1]
) is an individual whose net
worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who
owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account. Depending on the
currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire, which makes that amount
of wealth a goal for some, and almost unattainable for others.
[2]
In countries that use the short
scale number naming system, a billionaire is someone who has at least a thousand times a million
dollars, euros, or the currency of the given country (i.e. $1,000,000,000). In contrast, a billionaire in
countries that use thelong scale number naming system would be someone who has at least a
million times a million units of currency (i.e. $1,000,000,000,000). There is no evidence that anyone
on the planet has achieved the latter in either dollars or euros.
The increasing number of millionaires is partially due to prevailing economics, especially inflation; as
the individual value of each unit of currency decreases, achieving a million of these becomes easier.
The purchasing power of a million US dollars in 1959 is equivalent to $8.09 million in 2014.
[3][4]

Contents
[hide]
1 Terminology
2 Net worth vs. financial assets
3 Influence
4 Historical worth
5 Multimillionaire
6 Number of millionaires in the world
7 Number of millionaire households by country
8 Number of millionaires by country
9 Number of millionaires by city
10 United States
11 Entertainment
12 See also
o 12.1 Lists
13 References
Terminology[edit]
The word was first used (as millionnaire, double "n") in French in 1719 by Steven Fentiman, and is
first recorded in English (millionaire, as a French term) in a letter of Lord Byron of 1816, then in print
in Vivian Grey, a novel of 1826 by Benjamin Disraeli.
[5]
An earlier English word "millionary" was used
in 1786 by Thomas Jefferson while serving as Minister to France; he wrote: "The poorest labourer
stood on equal ground with the wealthiest Millionary".
[6]
The first American printed use of the word is
thought to be in an obituary of New York tobacco manufacturer Pierre Lorillard II in 1843.
[7]

The rising prevalence of people possessing ever increasing quantities of wealth has given rise to
additional terms to further differentiate millionaires. A multimillionaire has a net worth of more than 2
million units of currency, a decamillionaire has a net worth of more than 10 million units of currency,
and a hectomillionaire has a net worth of more than 100 million units of currency. The term
centimillionaire has become synonymous with hectomillionaire in America, despite the centi- prefix
meaning 1/100, not 100, in the metric system.
While statistics regarding financial assets and net worth are presented by household, the term is
also often used to describe only the individual who has amassed the assets as millionaire. That is,
even though the term statistically refers only to households, common usage is often in reference
only to an individual.
Net worth vs. financial assets[edit]

This section possibly contains original
research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and
adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original
research should be removed.(February 2013)
There are multiple approaches to determining a person's status as a millionaire. One of the two most
commonly used measurements is net worth, which counts the total value of all property owned by a
household minus the household's debts. According to this definition, a household owning an $800k
home, $50k of furnishings, two cars worth $60k, a $60k retirement savings account, $45k in mutual
funds, and a $325k vacation home with a $250k mortgage, $40k in car loans, and $25k in credit card
debt would be worth about $1,085,000; and every individual in this household would thus be a
millionaire. However, according to the net financial assets measurement used for some specific
applications (such as evaluating an investor's expected tolerance for risk for stockbroker ethics),
equity in one's principal residence is excluded, as are lifestyle assets, such as the car and furniture.
Therefore the above example household would only have net financial assets of $115,000. Another
term used is "net investable assets" or working capital. These practitioners may use the term
"millionaire" to mean somebody who is free to invest a million units of currency through them as
broker. For similar reasons, those who market goods, services, and investments to high net worth
individuals (HNWIs) are careful to specify a net worth "not counting principal residence." At the end
of 2011, there were around 5.1 million HNWIs in the US,
[8]
while at the same time, there were 11
million millionaires
[9]
in a total of 3.5 million millionaire households,
[10]
including those 5.1 million
HNWIs.
In the real estate bubble up to 2007, average house prices in some U.S. regions exceeded $1
million, but many homeowners owed large amounts to banks holding mortgages on their homes. For
this reason there are many people in million-dollar homes whose net worth is far short of a million
in some cases the net worth is actually negative.
Influence[edit]
While millionaires constitute only a small percentage of the population, they hold substantial control
over economic resources with the most powerful and prominent individuals usually ranking among
them. Also, the total amount of money held by millionaires can equal the same amount of money
held by a far higher number of poor people. The Gini coefficient, and other measures in economics,
estimated for each country, are useful for determining how many of the poorest people have the
equivalent total wealth of the few richest in the country. Forbes and Fortune magazines maintain lists
of people based on their net worth and are generally considered authorities on the
subject. Forbes listed 1,645 dollar billionaires in 2014, with an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion, an
increase from $5.4 trillion the previous year.
[11]
(see US-dollar billionaires in the world).
Sixteen percent of millionaires inherited their fortunes. Forty-seven percent of millionaires are
business owners. Twenty-three percent of the world's millionaires got that way through paid work,
consisting mostly of skilled professionals or managers.
[12]
Millionaires are, on average, 61 years old
with $3.05 million in assets.
[13]

Historical worth[edit]
Depending on how it is calculated, a million US dollars in 1900 is equivalent to ($28.3 million in
2014).
[3]

$24,766,584.77 using the consumer price index,
$21,224,697.05 using the GDP deflator,
$114,128,571.43 using the unskilled wage,
$162,813,054.25 using the nominal GDP per capita,
$641,531,874.47 using the relative share of GDP,
Thus one would need to have almost thirty million dollars today to have the purchasing power of a
US millionaire in 1900, or more than a hundred million dollars to have the same impact on the US
economy.
Multimillionaire[edit]
Another commonly used term is multimillionaire. As the term implies, multimillionaire applies to those
individuals residing in households with a net worth or wealth of two million or more units of currency.
Only a small minority of households are indeed multimillionaire households. The term also has a
more prestigious connotation than millionaire.
Roughly 1.0% of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) can also correctly be identified as ultra-high-net-
worth individuals (ultra-HNWIs), those who reside in households with a net worth or wealth of $30
million or more. There are approximately 95,000 ultra-HNWIs in the world with 61,600 or 64.8%
residing in the United States and Europe.
Number of millionaires in the world[edit]

Number of millionaires and ultra-millionaires (more than $30M)
The "World Wealth Report" is a report on individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million in all
assets except their primary residence. The report is compiled annually by Capgemini for RBC
Wealth Management (as of 2014 Previously, the report was compiled for Merrill Lynch).
The World Wealth Report 2013 found the Worlds High Net Worth (HNW) population growing to 12
million with their assets expected to rise to $55.8 trillion by 2015.
[14]

Some growth in international wealth and the number of high net worth individuals can be attributed
to the weakness of the US dollar, as stated in the report.
According to the World Wealth Report 2010, the number of millionaires in Asia Pacific (Asia minus
the Middle East) surpassed Europes for the first time in 2009.