How to read this. Residence is the city published in press, interviews, club announcements or Forbes profiles, never an address, and each profile on the map carries a reliability label. We do not know, and do not claim to know, why anyone lives where they live. Taxes are one reason people move; work, family, safety, language and weather are others. What follows is what the map shows, with the tax consequences attached so the numbers are tangible.
The first move: the profession decides
Before fortune size matters, the job does. Some careers come with a city attached; others come with a choice. The map makes the difference visible.
| Profession | Where they cluster (share of the map's sample) | What that place takes from a €10M income | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motorsport drivers | Monaco 9 of 23; Andorra 5; Switzerland 3; Spain 4 | Monaco 0%; Andorra ≈ 16%; Ticino ≈ 40%; Madrid 45% | Alonso, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Checo Pérez (Monaco); Jorge Martín, Viñales, the Espargarós (Andorra); Marc Márquez, Acosta (Spain) |
| Tennis players | Monaco 4 of 15; Florida 3; Spain 3; Switzerland 2 | Monaco 0%; Florida ≈ 39%; Murcia 47% | Sinner, Djokovic (formerly), Medvedev, Zverev (Monaco); Alcaraz, Nadal (Spain); Badosa (Dubai) |
| Footballers | The club's city, by definition; the Gulf appears at the end of the career | Saudi Arabia 0%; Madrid 45%; Munich 47%; Paris ≈ 54% | Mbappé, Bellingham, Vinícius, Rodri (Spain); Kane (Munich); Ronaldo, Benzema, Mané (Riyadh) |
| Streamers and YouTubers | Andorra 9 of 25 (all Spanish); Puerto Rico 2; Spain 6 | Andorra ≈ 16%; Puerto Rico ≈ 35%; Catalonia 50% | Rubius, TheGrefg, Willyrex, Vegetta777, AuronPlay (Andorra); Logan and Jake Paul (Puerto Rico); Ibai, IlloJuan, Xokas (Spain) |
| Golfers | United States 7 of 7: Texas 3, Arizona 2, Florida 2 | Texas and Florida ≈ 39%; Arizona ≈ 42% | Sergio García (Austin), Rahm (Scottsdale), Woods and McIlroy (Jupiter) |
| Musicians and actors | Los Angeles first (31 of 102), then Spain, London, Florida, Nashville | California ≈ 54%; London 47%; Florida and Tennessee ≈ 39% | The Weeknd, Beyoncé, DiCaprio (Los Angeles); Sheeran (Suffolk); Swift (Nashville); Enrique Iglesias (Miami); Banderas, Bardem, Cruz (Spain) |
Two things stand out. Where the profession leaves a choice, the choice is concentrated: nine drivers in a principality of 39,000 people, nine Spanish creators in a country of 85,000. Where the profession fixes the city, the tax follows the contract: a footballer's effective rate is decided by the league he signs with, which is why Cristiano Ronaldo's €263M in Riyadh faces 0% and Harry Kane's €25M in Munich faces 47.4%, with neither having chosen a tax system so much as an employer.
The second move: the passport decides
Split the 253 people who live outside Spain by nationality and the destinations change. Americans overwhelmingly stay in the United States and choose between states: 121 of the map's people live there, with California (46) far ahead of Florida (22) and Texas (11). The state is the decision, and it is worth up to 14 points of income: The Weeknd pays about 53.8% in Los Angeles, Messi about 39.3% forty minutes north of Miami, on comparable incomes.
Britons on the map who moved went to Monaco (Hamilton, Norris, Russell, Jim Ratcliffe), the Isle of Man (Tyson Fury, where income tax can be capped at £220,000 a year) or Dubai. Continental Europeans with large fortunes appear in Switzerland: Daniel Maté in Schwyz, José María Aristrain in Gstaad, Sebastian Vettel in Thurgau, Roger Federer near St. Gallen, Phil Collins and Paulo Coelho on Lake Geneva. Switzerland is not cheap on salary income (Geneva reaches 44.75%), but its cantonal wealth taxes of 0.2% to 1% are far below Spain's 3.5% marginal, and its lump-sum regime lets foreigners without local employment pay on living expenses rather than income.
Spaniards are the most concentrated group of all. Of the 57 Spanish nationals living abroad, 16 are in Andorra, 12 in the United States, 8 in the United Kingdom, 5 in Switzerland and 3 in Monaco. Andorra is the Spanish destination in the way Monaco is the drivers' destination: an hour from Barcelona, Spanish-speaking, 10% income tax, and a residence test the Spanish tax authority is known to check carefully.
The third move: the size of the fortune decides
Sort people by how much they earn or own and a third pattern appears. Among the 85 people on the map earning between €5M and €50M a year, California, London, Monaco, Florida and Madrid are the big five, in that order: this is the bracket of active careers, where the workplace still matters. Among the 45 earning €50M or more, California still leads (nine), but Monaco, Florida, Texas, Riyadh and Spain's savings-income billionaires follow: at this level the income is mostly portable and the choice widens.
Among the 44 Forbes billionaires the pattern inverts in an interesting way. Most live where they built the business: Musk in Austin, Bezos in Miami (since 2023), Page and Brin in the Bay Area, Arnault in Paris, Ambani in Mumbai, Slim in Mexico City, and Amancio Ortega in A Coruña. Only a handful are in classic low-tax jurisdictions: Changpeng Zhao in Dubai, Zhang Yiming and Eduardo Saverin in Singapore, Ratcliffe in Monaco, and the three Spanish billionaires abroad, all in Switzerland or Andorra. For the very largest fortunes the map suggests the home city wins more often than the tax code does, in part because the wealth sits in company shares that most systems tax lightly until sold, and in part because shareholdings in the family business are exempt from Spain's wealth tax when the owner runs it.
And the ones who stay
Eighty-five people on the map live in Spain, thirty-one of them with a public income figure, and their estimated tax and contributions add up to about €1.4 billion a year. Rafa Nadal in Manacor pays the Balearic schedule at 49.25%; Carlos Alcaraz in El Palmar pays Murcia's 47%; Lamine Yamal and Ibai Llanos pay Catalonia's 50%; Mbappé, Bellingham and Vinícius pay Madrid's 45% without access to the Beckham regime, which excludes athletes; Amancio Ortega's Inditex dividends pay the savings schedule at 30%, with the large-fortunes tax on top. Any of them could live in Andorra or Monaco; the map shows what that would save, and for most of them the number is in the tens of millions a year. They stay. Whatever weight taxes carry in a residence decision, it is clearly not the only weight.
What the pattern is, in one paragraph
When the money arrives, people with a portable job and a Spanish passport tend to look at Andorra; people with a portable job and any other European passport look at Monaco or Switzerland; Americans look at Florida, Texas or Nevada rather than abroad; footballers go where the contract is and, late in the career, where the contract is largest, which today is the Gulf; and the very richest mostly stay where their company is. Spain, at 45% to 50% on salary income plus a wealth tax, sits in the upper-middle of the countries these people live in: more than Florida, less than California; more than Monaco, less than Paris. That position, rather than any single celebrity, is what the map is really about. The second piece, Growing a fortune in Spain, follows one hypothetical person through those brackets.
Corrections: if you are one of the people on the map, or represent them, and a residence or figure is wrong or outdated, write to us and we will correct or remove it. Data and method: static tables · interactive map.