Asian millionaires beat Europe in rich list for the first time

- The net wealth of Asian millionaires has eclipsed that of rich Europeans for the first time, largely because of the relative health of stock markets in Hong Kong, India and China last year - London daily Financial Times announced.

The annual Merrill Lynch Wealth Management analysis of investors with $1m or more in assets found that as of late last year, there were 3m millionaires in both the Asia-Pacific and Europe. The survey quantified the wealth held in Asia at $9,700bn, compared with $9,500bn in Europe.

The survey defines millionaires as people with net financial wealth of more than $1m, excluding their primary residence.

North Americans are still the best-off. At the end of last year, the continent was home to 3.1m millionaires worth $10,700bn.

The US, Japan and Germany produce about half of all millionaires, who were numbered at 10m in 2009.

China was ranked fourth, boasting 477,000 individuals with $1m or more in their accounts. India is catching up, having seen the number of millionaires rise more than 50 per cent to 126,756 in 2009.

Though the UK economy shrank, British millionaires swelled to 448,100, up 24 per cent from 2008. Russian millionaires also saw their ranks rise to 117,700.

Millionaires recovered

After taking a hit in 2008 during the financial crisis, the wealth of the world’s millionaires recovered last year with the upswing in stock markets, rising 19 per cent to $39,000bn.

Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. New York

Financial Times London

Merrill Lynch

Financial Times

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