One person out of every 200,000 residents in Hong Kong is worth a billion dollars. As of March 2018, there were 84 billionaires residing in the city, making it the location with the largest concentration of billionaires anywhere in the world. This is more than twice as many billionaires as reside in New York City, which is home to the second largest concentration of billionaires in the world.
The vast majority of Hong Kong's billionaires made their fortunes on their own, with only a few having inherited their fortunes. Real estate, shipping, retail, and finance are only some of the fields in which the city's billionaires made their fortunes. Other fields include retail.
People have always been able to travel to Hong Kong in the hopes of making their fortune there throughout its history. In 1841, the city was initially established by the British as a colony, and it rapidly developed into a significant commercial centre. Hong Kong became an even more important trading centre after the Suez Canal was opened in 1869, which contributed to the city's economic growth at the time.
Hong Kong maintained its rapid expansion and economic success throughout the 20th century. The city was under Japanese occupation during World War II, but it made a speedy recovery once the conflict ended. Despite the fact that control of Hong Kong was transferred from the British to the Chinese in 1997, the city's economy has continued to flourish.
Hong Kong is now considered to be one of the most important financial centres in the world, and its billionaires are considered to be some of the richest people in the world.