SAN FRANCISCO - (August 1, 2023) - Today, we are unveiling insights from over a decade of private investment data that showcases areas of wealth concentration across the United States. The analysis samples individuals—non-institutional limited partners—that have invested anywhere from $100,000 to $5 million in private equity with Juniper Square and sheds light on the regions where these savvy investors are the most prevalent and active, as well as how much they invest in private equity.
“The United States is home to more than five million high-net-worth individuals, but only a select few of those individuals—less than 2%---have the means and the access to invest in private equity,” said Matt Lawson, chief marketing officer at Juniper Square. “As we took a look at the distribution of these investors throughout the country, we were surprised by the concentration in places one might not expect.”
While major metros like Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco have the largest overall number of individuals invested in private equity, our data uncovers surprising pockets of these investors in smaller metropolitan areas.
On a per capita basis, the following U.S. cities have the highest concentration of individuals investing in private equity (ranked from highest to lowest):
Naples, Florida
Santa Cruz, California
San Francisco, California
Furthermore, when you look at top metropolitan areas by the average check size written:
Philadelphia, PA leads the way at $1,655,093
Detroit, MI is next at $1,001,528
Ogden, UT rounds out the top three at $928,559
“Finding smaller hubs of private wealth in places like Philadelphia, Detroit, or even across Utah shows us that private investment is coming in from all corners, and the savviest investors aren’t always in the major metropolitan cities you’d expect,” concluded Lawson. “The regional span of these LPs further demonstrates the need for GPs to leverage modern technology to connect and communicate with these investors, reaching them at every stage of the partnership, wherever they are.”