Number of dollar millionaires in India 2019-2020

At the end of 2020, there were nearly 700 thousand dollar-millionaires in India. This was a significant decrease compared to over 760 thousand millionaires at the end of the previous year. In total, there were nearly 60 million dollar-millionaires worldwide in 2020. The highest density of millionaires had been recorded in Switzerland with nearly 15 percent, whereas India had a density of 0.1 percent. Persons owning assets worth more than one million U.S. dollars are considered high-net-worth individuals (HNWI).

India’s super-rich

Persons owning assets worth more than 30 million U.S. dollars are considered ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI). In 2020, these roughly six thousand individuals owned approximately 400 billion dollars. By far the richest person in India was Reliance chairmen Mukesh Ambani. His female counterpart was Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Technologies and daughter of HCL-founder Shiv Nadar.

Wealth with a purpose

Shiv Nadar was not only one of the richest Indians in 2020, but he also contributed around seven billion Indian rupees for philanthropic initiatives. He was only topped by Wipro-chairman Azim Premji that year. Through Premji’s donations in that sector, education received the vast majority of philanthropic donations that year. Besides private donations, spending on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown as well in recent years.