Numbers of U.S. ‘Decamillionaires’ Rising, Study Says

The number of Americans with fortunes topping $10 million has more than doubled in the past five years and the ranks of “decamillionaires” are growing at 20% annually, a university researcher said Monday.

In 1982, about 38,855 Americans boasted a net worth of $10 million or more. By 1987, the number had jumped to 81,816, Thomas J. Stanley, a marketing professor at Georgia State University, said in a study.

The study predicts that by 1990, more than 100,000 households will have more than $10 million, said Stanley, who includes the information in a book entitled “Marketing to the Affluent,” to be released in June.

Stanley said the decamillionaire population is increasing at about 20% a year while the total number of U.S. households is growing at less than 2% a year.

In his treatise on how to sell to the decamillionaire, Stanley describes the group as more likely than average to own or manage a private or closely held business.

The super rich also are more sensitive to variations in service quality than to variations in price, he said.

As many as 70% of America’s decamillionaires are “self-made,” and those who have inherited their fortunes greatly increased their net worth by an average of $4 per dollar inherited, he said.

Stanley said the American decamillionaire population is spread throughout the nation and overseas.

“Surprisingly, the highest concentration of decamillionaires is not in one of the 50 states,” Stanley said. “It is found in American households in foreign countries.”

Decamillionaires can be found in 427 per 100,000 households living abroad, which is about 4 1/2 times the national average of 91 per 100,000 households.

Stanley said his figures are based on estimates derived from statistical analysis.

“Some states generally not perceived as being centers of wealth have a much higher than average concentration of decamillionaires,” Stanley said.

Nevada and Wyoming, with 130 and 118 per 100,000 households respectively, surpass California’s concentration of 116 per 100,000 households.

The states with the greatest number of decamillionaires are California, with 11,410; New York, with 10,569; Texas, with 9,241; Florida, with 5,171, and Illinois, with 4,472, he said.

The Southern region contains the largest concentration of decamillionaires with an average 209 per 100,000 households.

In the Northeast, Connecticut, with a concentration of 198 decamillionaires per 100,000 households, has more than New York with 158, the study said.