One in three Monaco residents are millionaires

With no income tax and yacht-filled turquoise water, it’s little wonder one in three residents walking down the street are millionaires.

The tiny city in the French Riveriera really is a playground for the ultra-wealthy.

Monaco has a population of 38,300, and according to the 2019 Knight Frank Wealth Report, about 12,261 of those are millionaires.

That means about one in three of the residents squeezed into the three square kilometre haven are millionaires.

So many yachts, so little poor people. Picture: Thomas Coex.

And with the wealth so heavily concentrated it’s little wonder there are so few poor people. In fact, there is virtually no poverty in Monaco.

The city relies on two major sources of income: tourism and millionaires buying houses, Karyn Adams of the Borgen Project, a non-profit organisation with a mission of fighting global poverty, wrote.

A few lattes, a few Porsches …

“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 travelling and buying properties,” she said.

“Even though these improvements are meant to attract foreigners with money, the natives benefit from it as well, effectively creating a virtually non-existent poverty line within their tiny, proud and sovereign nation.”

The city has virtually no poverty.

Even more seductive for these millionaires than the turquoise water and annual Formula One Grand Prix is the longstanding policy of no income tax.

But just because the taxes are low doesn’t mean it’s an affordable city to setup camp.

A small one-bedroom apartment will set you back $2.3 million, Sotheby’s International Realty France-Monaco chairman Alexander Kraft told Mansion Global.

Originally published as One in three Monaco residents are millionaires