A newly published study shows that nearly 64% of China's wealthiest citizens are in the process of emigrating or have plans to emigrate. That is an increase of 4% over the last year.
The study, conducted by the Hurun Research Institute, a China-focused wealth research firm, reported the increase over the previous year was driven by the fact that one-third of the wealthiest of the wealthy, those whose personal worth is over US$ 16 million, have already emigrated.
The most popular destination to emigrate to, according to the study, was the United States followed closely by Europe, Canada, Australia and Singapore. Interestingly, only 15% of those that emigrated are looking to give up their Chinese nationality with the majority just wanting to gain permanent residency overseas.
For pre-college education, the United Kingdom beats out the United States and Canada as the top choice but for college education, the United States was first, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia.
Previous studies say that the most common reasons China's wealthiest people cited for emigrating are to give their children a better education, to escape China's pollution problems and to get away from the stresses of urban living such as traffic and overcrowding.
Some analysts say, however, that the main reason the rich are leaving is because they want to maintain the wealth that they have gained. By some estimates, China's wealthiest have hidden US$ 658 billion worth of assets overseas.The study pointed out that the flight of China's wealthiest overseas has been a blow to China's luxury brands whose sales fell by 15%, the largest decrease in almost five years.
The tastes of the wealthiest Chinese have also changed over the year. After four years as being their top destination for a vacation, France fell to second behind Australia. Moreover, watch-collecting has overtaken calligraphy-collecting as the top hobby of the nation's richest, the study said.