World has more millionaires than ever at 10.9m
New statistics show how the globe’s millionaire population beat the pre-crisis 2007 high last year and hit a figure of 10.9 million.
According to a new report on high net worth individuals, defined as those worth $1m or more, excluding family homes, consumer durables, etc, the numbers enjoying such wealth rose 8.3% to 10.9m while their financial wealth grew 9.7% to reach a staggering US$42.7 trillion.
According to the Merrill Lynch and Capgemini 2010 report, the pace of growth among these privileged classes is slowing and compares with 2009 figures of 17.1% and 18.9% respectively. The report said the global impact of the financial crisis receded last year, but “aftershocks” were obvious in what it described as certain “hotspots.”
From the statistics, Ireland, despite its bailout and banking crisis does not appear to come into the hotspot category at all.
In 2010 the Merrill Lynch report shows the number of millionaires in Ireland rose 5% to 19%.
That is slightly behind Europe’s overall growth rate of 6.3% which, according to the survey, was among the lowest performing regions of the globe in 2010.
Commenting on the findings Merrill Lynch’s Bill O’Neill said the past few years have seen “great fluctuations in high net worth individuals wealth population.”
The findings show the global high net worth individuals category of citizens are still high concentrated in the US, Japan and Germany which combined accounted for 53% of the world’s millionaires.
The US is still home to the largest high net worth individuals segment with 3.1 million millionaires, making up 28.6% of the total figure of 10.9m reached last year.
One of the interesting facts to emerge from the study is the steady upsurge of wealth generated by the Asia Pacific region which has now outpaced Europe in terms of its high net worth individuals population.
Its millionaire numbers grew 9.7% to 3.3m last year while Europe’s grew a more modest 6.3% to 3.1m.
The Asia Pacific is now the second largest region for both high net worth individuals wealth and population after North America.
With fears of recession easing Mr O’Neill said more investors were turning to the Investments of Passion category that includes luxury goods such as cars and yachts.
Art is also coming back into fashion and accounted for 22% of investments in that sector last year.
The art category was higher, however, among European investors at 27% and highest among Latin Americans at 28%.
