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Foreign millionaires are flocking to the U.S. in record numbers, and that’s despite a rocky start to 2025 marked by economic volatility, President Donald Trump‘s tariff policies, and most recently, America’s military intervention in the Israel-Iran war.
By the end of 2025, the U.S. is projected to see an unprecedented net influx of 7,500 millionaires from around the world with a cumulative wealth of $43.7 billion, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025 released on Tuesday by investment consulting firm Henley & Partners.
Notably, the U.S. ranks as the world’s second most in-demand wealth haven, trailing the United Arab Emirates, which is expected to attract a whopping 9,800 millionaires boasting a total net worth of $63 billion this year.
“A strong inward flow of millionaires creates a positive, self-reinforcing loop,” writes professor Trevor Williams, chair and co-founder of FXGuard and former chief economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. “America is home to the largest, deepest capital market and is an attractive and welcoming location that holds obvious appeal for the globally wealthy.”
So where are the affluent migrants poised to make the U.S. their new home coming from? According to the latest data analysis, Asia, Latin America, and the United Kingdom are the top three sources of millionaire inflows in 2025.
The U.K., in particular, has emerged as the biggest loser in terms of wealth out-migration, facing the largest single-year exodus of millionaires ever recorded, at 16,500 high net worth individuals collectively holding an estimated $89 billion.
When it comes to top U.S. destinations for the ultrarich transplants, the Henley & Partners report has found that Florida is especially popular, particularly among millionaires from Brazil and Colombia.
Meanwhile, California’s Silicon Valley remains the world’s No. 1 hot spot for tech entrepreneurs. The area, which is home to Apple, Meta, and Alphabet, is dotted with millionaire and billionaire enclaves, among them the towns of Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Hillsborough, and Palo Alto.
Well-known residents include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Larry Page, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Risks and opportunities under the Trump administration
“So far President Donald Trump’s second administration has been a bewildering circus of uncertainty
consisting of executive orders, courtroom dramas, meme coins, cack-handed peace initiatives, and
departmental shakeups,” writes in the report Misha Glenny, rector at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. “Amid the noise, new and unexpected opportunities are emerging but with a significantly elevated element of risk.”
Glenny notes that, for the time being, the Trump administration is not deterring the wealthy from moving to the U.S., but he warns that the president’s “wild imposition of tariffs” could eventually lead wary investors to flock to “other more stable economies.”
From 2014 to 2024, the U.S. saw a 78% spike in millionaires, marking the fastest growth among the world’s 10 wealthiest countries. Additionally, the U.S. boasts the greatest number of both millionaires (6 million-plus) and billionaires (867).
In comparison, China, which ranks as the second-wealthiest country, has only 827,900 millionaires and 278 billionaires.
Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, writes that, at this time, the U.S. “continues to demonstrate that economic dynamism attracts global wealth despite competitive drawbacks.”
Trump’s ‘gold card’ to replace EB-5 visa
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Steffen credits the stalwart 35-year-old EB-5 immigrant investor program with bringing over $50 billion in foreign direct investment to the U.S. and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs domestically.
“Its longevity reflects America’s greatest drawcard: an entrepreneurial ecosystem unmatched in delivering transformative growth potential,” writes Steffen of the veteran visa program.
Trump’s proposed “gold card” visa initiative, also known as the “Trump Card,” is poised to supplant the existing EB-5 program. As part of the president’s ambitious money-making scheme, affluent foreigners will be offered legal residency in the U.S. in exchange for $5 million apiece.
During a Cabinet meeting in February, Trump mused that his initiative could potentially wipe out the $36 trillion national debt.
“If we sell a million [gold cards], that’s $5 trillion,” he said at the time. “If we sell 10 million, which is possible … that’s $50 trillion.”
Andrew Amolis, head of research at New World Wealth, a global wealth intelligence firm, has told Realtor.com® that there are about 2 million people in the world with a liquid net worth of over $5 million— but Trump’s gold card plan is more likely to attract centimillionaires and billionaires with liquid wealth of over $100 million.
“There are only around 30,000 of these individuals in the world,” said Amolis.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is spearheading the gold card plan, recently told the Financial Times that some 70,000 foreigners have already signed up to get on a waitlist. It is unclear when the visas will be made available for purchase.
Steffen notes in the new Henley & Partners report that the competition among countries to lure the world’s wealthiest individuals is heating up, and that given the “current political volatility” in the U.S., affluent Americans are increasingly exploring opportunities abroad.
“American nationals represent the largest source market for investment migration applications worldwide by a significant margin,” he writes.
During the first six months of 2025, more than 30% of all applications processed by Henley & Partners were submitted by U.S. investors, representing a 200% increase compared with the beginning of 2024.
