One in every 175 people in Shanghai is a "millionaire" with at least 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million), according to on Thursday's Hurun Shanghai Wealth Report 2011, the first report to profile the city's richest class.
Shanghai has 132,000 individuals with personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan, which is the amount of money necessary to be considered a millionaire in the report. The Shanghai figure accounts for 13.8 percent of the national total and is second only to Beijing, where 170,000 millionaires are based.
The number of Shanghai-based millionaires is growing by 8.2 percent a year, according to the report, which is to be published annually for at least the next three years.
"Rising property prices and a fast-growing GDP have been the key drivers for the growth in the number of these millionaire luxury consumers, creating a situation where one in every 175 people in Shanghai is a millionaire," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun Report, a China-based luxury business magazine.
Shanghai's GDP increased by 9.9 percent last year, according to government statistics.
Luxury property prices in Shanghai rose 21 percent year-on-year, according to a report from Knight Frank, a global property management company. The overall number of long-term residents in Shanghai has reached 23 million, according to statistics released by Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau earlier this month.
Some 55 percent of Shanghai's millionaires derived their wealth from their own private businesses. About 20 percent are property speculators who have made fortunes from rapidly rising prices. About 15 percent are stock market gurus and these are also the youngest millionaires, with an average age of 38.
The remaining 10 percent are high-earning salaried executives. About 30 percent of the millionaires are women.
Pig feed king Liu Yongxing and property tycoon Xu Rongmao are the two richest people living in Shanghai. Xu is also Shanghai's most generous philanthropist and donated US$18 million last year.
The three richest local Shanghainese are Ye Lipei, Liu Yiqian and Jiang Nanchun. Basketball star Yao Ming, 30, is the youngest locally-born billionaire.
Property and investment were the two largest sources of wealth for the 109 Shanghai residents on the Hurun Rich List 2010. The sectors enriched 33.8 percent and 20.6 percent of the wealthiest residents, according to the Hurun report.