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- A third of the population of Monaco, a tiny city-state on the French Riviera, are millionaires.
- Of the 38,300 people who live in Monaco, 12,261 of them are millionaires, according to the 2019 Knight Frank Wealth Report.
- Wealthy foreigners have long seen Monaco has a tax haven for its lack of income tax.
- Monaco also has a zero poverty rate.
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Monaco, a tiny city-state on the French Riviera, is known as a playground for the ultra-wealthy.
Of the 38,300 people who live in Monaco, about 12,261 are millionaires, according to the 2019 Knight Frank Wealth Report.
That means about 32% of Monaco residents — nearly a third of the population — are millionaires. And these ultra-wealthy residents are all clustered within less than one square mile.
Just as noteworthy as such a staggering concentration of wealth — if not more — is the fact that Monaco has virtually no poverty.
"The government reinvests tourism earnings and other capital gains back into the community to improve the quality of life and to entice the wealthy to continue traveling and buying properties," Karyn Adams of the Borgen Project, a non-profit organization with a mission of fighting global poverty, wrote of Monaco.
"Even though these improvements are meant to attract foreigners with money, the natives benefit from it as well, effectively creating a virtually nonexistent poverty line within their tiny, proud and sovereign nation," she added.
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Monaco has long been a destination for the super-rich, partially because of its reputation as a tax haven — it has no income tax. And it probably doesn’t hurt that Monaco has a balmy Mediterranean climate and hosts glamorous events throughout the year such as the Monaco Grand Prix and the Monaco Yacht Show.
The affluent city-state comes with property prices to match.
For a small one-bedroom apartment in Monaco, buyers can expect to pay at least $1.6 million, Alexander Kraft, chairman and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty France-Monaco, told Mansion Global.
Most "normal" apartments in the city-state cost between $2.2 million and $22.3 million, Kraft said, with the higher end penthouses going for more than $55 million.
See Also:
- 15 astounding facts about Monaco, the tiny French Riviera city-state where 32% of the population is made up of millionaires
- Here’s a scientific explanation for why rich people think they’re better than everyone
- What it’s like living as a millionaire in Taipei, Asia’s ‘stealthy rich city,’ where the ultra-wealthy own more than 5 homes each and shop in private VIP fitting rooms
Source: Business Insider – kwarren@businessinsider.com (Katie Warren)