Millionaires Are Leaving Germany: Top 12 Destinations

The global millionaire flight

A new record of emigrants

According to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report, a projected 142,000 millionaires leave their home country worldwide in 2025, more than ever before. The wealthy are more globally mobile than ever, and their choice of residence is increasingly a vote on whole economies.¹

Germany in the red for the first time

For the first time on record, Germany is projected to lose a net 400 millionaires in 2025, alongside France and Spain. For a country that attracted wealth for decades, the mere trend reversal is an alarm signal, regardless of the absolute size.²

Britain and China lose the most

The biggest outflows are elsewhere: the UK is projected to lose around 16,500 millionaires in 2025, China 7,800. The British figure is the largest net outflow any country has recorded, a warning of how fast wealth can leave.³

France and Spain turn negative too

Along with Germany, France (minus 800) and Spain (minus 500) slip into the red for the first time. Europe's big continental economies are losing the wealthy at once, a pattern that points to shared causes such as tax burden and weak growth.⁴

Germany's millionaire base is shrinking

The stock is falling too: according to UBS, Germany had around 1.6 million dollar millionaires in 2024, about 41,000 fewer than the year before, a drop of 2.5 percent, attributed to economic stagnation. Germany is not only being left; fewer new fortunes are forming.⁵

The top 12 destinations

The top 12 at a glance

Henley & Partners projects that in 2025 the United Arab Emirates (+9,800), the USA (+7,500), Italy (+3,600), Switzerland (+3,000) and Saudi Arabia (+2,400) lead the destination ranking. Behind them come Portugal (+1,400), Greece (+1,200), Singapore, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Twelve countries that deliberately attract the wealthy.⁶

The Emirates are the top target

The clear winner is the United Arab Emirates: it draws a projected 9,800 millionaires in 2025, the fourth year running at the top worldwide, with about 63 billion dollars of incoming wealth. Zero income tax and generous visas act like a magnet.⁷

The USA and Italy follow

In second place are the USA with a projected 7,500 incoming millionaires in 2025, while in Europe Italy leads with about 3,600. Despite high US taxes, growth and capital markets convince; in Italy a flat tax for new residents attracts. These are exactly the factors Germany lacks.⁸

Europe's magnets catch up

Other Europeans are gaining too: Switzerland draws around 3,000, Portugal 1,400 and Greece 1,200 millionaires in 2025. All three lure with flat-rate or special taxation, while Germany sits clearly on the losing side of the same ranking.⁹

The trend is accelerating

The exodus is set to grow: Henley projects the global figure rising to a record of around 165,000 millionaires relocating in 2026, up from 142,000. Wealth migration is not a one-off, but a trend gathering pace, and Germany is now on the wrong side of it.¹⁰

The tax magnets

Italy's flat tax

Italy lures newcomers with a flat tax on all foreign income, raised to 300,000 euros a year from 2026 (from 100,000 originally). Even after the increase the scheme stays attractive enough to make Italy Europe's top destination.¹¹

Greece's flat-rate model

Greece offers new residents a non-dom flat rate of 100,000 euros a year on foreign income, for up to 15 years. Several Mediterranean countries now openly compete for wealthy newcomers, a contest Germany does not enter.¹²

Spain's Beckham Law

Spain taxes qualifying newcomers under the so-called Beckham Law at a flat 24 percent instead of up to 47 percent, for six years. Since 2023, remote employees of foreign firms can use the regime too.¹³

Portugal's successor scheme

After the old NHR status expired, Portugal introduced the IFICI regime, with a flat 20 percent rate and broad exemption of foreign income for ten years. The contest for talent and wealth is being fought with tax policy.¹⁴

Why Germany loses

The exit tax as a hurdle

Anyone leaving Germany who holds shares in corporations pays, via the exit tax under Section 6 AStG, an immediate 25 percent plus solidarity surcharge on notional capital gains. That effectively ties entrepreneurs to the location instead of making it attractive.¹⁵

Tightened further in 2025

Since 2025 it is stricter still: the open-ended, interest-free deferral of the exit tax has been removed, and privately held investment fund units are now covered too. While other countries set incentives, Germany raises the cost of leaving.¹⁶

The next debate is already running

The pressure is likely to rise: in March 2026 the Bundestag debated reintroducing a wealth tax for the first time in years. The mere prospect of additional substance taxation tends to speed up the exit planning of wealthy families.¹⁷

One in three millionaires considers leaving

According to a survey by Arton Capital, after the federal election 37 percent of the German millionaires polled are more willing to emigrate. Among the reasons they cite are declining quality of life, political uncertainty and the prospect of higher taxes.¹⁸

The skilled workers are leaving too

More Germans emigrate than return

It is not only millionaires: in 2025 the net migration of German citizens was about minus 97,000, with Switzerland, Austria and Spain the most popular destinations. Losing high performers means losing taxpayers, founders and know-how at once.¹⁹

It is the qualified who go

Especially bitter: surveys find that the large majority of German emigrants are highly qualified, with around 85 percent holding a university degree, against roughly a third of the resident population. The very group an ageing economy needs most is the one leaving.²⁰

Our read: a symptom, not a coincidence

In our view the flight of wealth and talent is no isolated tax issue, but a symptom of the same weakness that drives the insolvencies. Germany Insolvencies counts 14,675 opened corporate insolvencies by May 2026. When capital, brains and companies leave at once, the problem is structural, not cyclical.²¹