Roughly one in 12 multimillionaires in the UAE is a woman, according to a new study.
That is slightly below the world average, according to research by the London-based wealth management consultancy WealthInsight, but ahead of countries including Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Overall, the consultants said, the UAE ranked 29th out of 42 countries studied. For purposes of the research, a multimillionaire was defined as someone with assets worth more than US$30 million.
According to the consultancy’s database of the global rich, there are 54 female multimillionaires in the UAE, or 8.6 per cent of the national total.
The WealthInsight Intelligence Center Database records 60,000 multimillionaires across the world.
Many of the female multimillionaires in the UAE are involved in family-run businesses.
Influential women in family businesses in the UAE include Raja Easa Al Gurg, group managing director of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group; Fatima Al Jaber, group chief operating officer and executive director of the board at Al Jaber Group; and Amna BinHendi, chief executive at BinHendi Enterprises.
In Saudi Arabia, 3.8 per cent of the multimillionaire population is female. In Turkey, by contrast, the figure is 17 per cent.
Portugal is the most equal country, with 24 per cent of the multimillionaires female. It is followed by the Philippines, Peru, Hong Kong and Turkey.
From the bottom, Japan concludes the list with 3.7 per cent female multimillionaires.
It is preceded by Saudi Arabia, Mexico at 5.3 per cent, Russia at 5.7 per cent, the Netherlands at 5.9 per cent, and Belgium at 6.0 per cent.
“It would be reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the number of Asian countries in the top 10 can, in part, be attributed to the culture of involving female family members in private businesses in this region,” said Oliver Williams, an analyst at WealthInsight. A majority, or 59 per cent, of the country’s multimillionaires live in Dubai, while 26 per cent are in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE ranks ninth in the world in the density of millionaires, according to a Boston Consulting Group report in June.
It said that of every 1,000 households, 40 hold private wealth of at least $1m. Among ultra-high-net-worth households, the country came in 15th globally: here, three out of 100,000 households hold assets worth $100m.
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