Toronto ranked 15th on global list of millionaires

Toronto has the 15th highest concentration of millionaires in the world, according to recentnumber-crunchingby a British wealth management company.

More than two per cent of Torontonianshave $1 million in assets not including their homes, a recent survey by financial magazine Spear's in association with wealth manager WealthInsight found.

That means one in every 44 people in Toronto are millionaires, and the figure doesn't include the value of someone's primary residence.

• Toronto home prices tell tale of 2 cities

"Favourable tax and outstanding location are important criteria for attracting clusters of millionaires," WealthInsight analyst Oliver Williams said.

Monaco tops list

If that's the case, it's no surprise thatthe city-state of Monaco tops the list, with almost a third of the area's 40,000 people classifiedas millionaires which the survey defines as having assets in excess of $1 million US, not including the value of their residence.

Financial centres Zurich and Geneva are second andthird, before the field evens out into more thana dozen cities where between two and five per cent of the residents are millionaires.

The complete listfollows:

• Monaco(29.21 per cent).
• Zurich(27.34).
• Geneva(17.92).
• New York(4.63).
• Frankfurt(3.88).
• London(3.39).
• Oslo(2.90).
• Singapore(2.80).
• Amsterdam(2.63).
• Florence(2.59).
• Hong Kong(2.58).
• Rome(2.54).
• Dublin(2.40).
• Doha(2.31).
• Toronto(2.29).
• Venice(2.25).
• Brussels(2.11).
• Houston(2.09).
• San Francisco(2.07).
• Paris(2.04).

The ranking of millionaires is important for cities to be aware of, Williams says, "because wealthy individuals, more than any other group, will change their home and even their domicilebased on these factors."

But "bear in mind that having millionaires isn't itself a good thing if it means inequality, which is damaging to everyone if it goes up," Spear's editor Josh Spero added.