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Millionaires’ Riches Return to Pre-Crisis Levels

23 June 2010 10:30 (UTC +04:00)

The number of millionaire households, or those with at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding primary residences, expanded to 10 million from 8.6 million a year earlier, the firms said in their 14th annual World Wealth Report published today. Asia-Pacific, led by Hong Kong and India, now match the number of millionaires in Europe at 3 million. North America had the second-biggest increase, 17 percent, to 3.1 million, the largest number in a region.

Global wealth held by millionaires rose by 19 percent to $39 trillion after falling more than 19 percent in 2008 following the credit crisis that sent stock indexes to their worst annual losses since the Great Depression and slashed the value of real-estate holdings, hedge-fund and private-equity investments.

Asia-Pacific assets grew 31 percent to $9.7 trillion last year, the biggest regional increase, the report said. Assets in North America advanced 18 percent to $10.7 trillion while those in Europe climbed 14 percent to $9.5 trillion.

The U.S. had 2.87 million millionaires, followed by 1.65 million in Japan and 861,500 in Germany, the report said. The three countries accounted for 53.5 percent of the worldâ€™s millionaires in 2009. The number of millionaires in Hong Kong soared 104 percent and in India, 51 percent to 126,700.