The study of 15 nations shows that the US remains the best place to create wealth when measured across several metrics but Asia is close behind. Europe, meanwhile, is stuck in the slow lane.

The US remains Number One around the world as a wealth-creation nation – defying some of the conventional wisdom about how Asia is increasingly a center of economic gravity, a study shows.

An RBC Wealth Management and Economist Intelligence Unit study puts the US top across a range of measures based on economics, markets, innovation and risk. China, Singapore, India and Hong Kong round out the top five out of a total of 15 nations. (Such rankings suggest that Hong Kong’s political troubles haven’t yet hurt its business standing overmuch.)

The firms’ Wealth Opportunity Index puts Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Germany in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth places, respectively. In descending order, the remaining five are France, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Russia. For the purposes of this study, its authors defined wealth opportunity as the ability of individuals and households to generate investible assets with a medium-term outlook (i.e., over the next two to five years). 

Overall, Asia-Pacific outperforms other regions, with high scores on main metrics. Western Europe is perceived as low in risk but the region suffers from a subdued economic outlook.

The US is placed top in a number of important subcategories, including wealth creation opportunities in market capitalization, access to finance, and business dynamism. It also ranked near-best in several others, including commitment to innovation, as measured by R&D spending; and innovation effectiveness, as measured by patent applications per head (tied for 2nd).

In other areas, however, the index painted a more mixed picture. Digging into economic fundamentals, for example, the US ranked second-to-last in consumer savings as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), edging only the UK.

"This new index proves that strong wealth opportunity isn't just an individual endeavor, but depends on macro conditions in the economy, whether that's a strong environment for entrepreneurship and continued economic growth, or properly managed structural risks and population change," Angie O'Leary, Head of Wealth Planning at RBC Wealth Management - US, said.

Women’s views
The research follows 2018's survey of women and their views on wealth, as well as a separate study of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the US completed earlier this year. That survey of over 1,000 HNW respondents noted similar concerns reflected in the Wealth Opportunity Index, specifically noting the rising cost of living and healthcare expenses as challenges to further wealth creation and wealth preservation in today's economy.

Still, an accounting of HNW market sizing recently undertaken by RBC Wealth Management estimated that the US will continue to have the highest number of wealthy people through 2030, with China in second - and also fastest growing.