Photo: ChinaFotoPress

Beijing has overtaken New York as the city with the highest number of billionaires for the first time, a new report by China-based firm Hurun says, the BBC reports.

A total of 100 billionaires are now living in the Chinese capital, compared with 95 in New York, the report said.

Shanghai, China’s centre of commerce, came in fifth place.

Hurun, which tracks wealth in China, has released an annual Global Rich List for the past five years measuring billionaires’ wealth in US dollars.

It found that Beijing had welcomed 32 new billionaires since last year, allowing it to vault past New York which it calculated only saw four new billionaires.

Overall, China has overtaken the US as the country with the highest number of billionaires. However, the top 10 billionaires in Hurun’s list is still dominated by Americans.

China has 568 billionaires after gaining 90 new ones, compared with the US which has 535.

China’s billionaires boast a combined net worth of $1.4 trillion (£1.01 trillion), which is similar to the GDP of Australia.