MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Number of millionaires jumped to 8.7 million in 2005

The number of millionaires around the world rose to 8.7 million over the past year, fueled by a sharp increase in emerging markets such as South Korea, India and Russia, showed a survey released this week.

The 10th annual World Wealth Report by investment group Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini said the number of high net-worth individuals, defined as those with assets of one million excluding their primary residence, grew by 6.5% in 2005.

The assets of the wealthy meanwhile increase 8.5% to 33.3 trillion US dollars according to the survey. By 2010, this figure is expected to reach 44.6 trillion, growing an average of six per cent annually. The super-wealthy, defined as those with financial assets of more than 30 million US dollars grew by 10.2% to 85,400 in 2005.

The number of millionaires in the US increased 6.8% and 7.2% in Canada. As a result, North America remained home to the largest number of millionaires and continued to have the largest amount of assets from this group.

However the number of millionaires soared in emerging markets. South Korea's millionaire population rose 21.3%, India's 19.3%, Russia 17.4% and South Africa 15.9%.

In Europe, the number of millionaires grew by 4.5%, due in part to robust stock market returns in major eastern and western European nations in spite of poor economic performance in its largest economies.

High oil prices helped fuel growth of fortunes in the Middle East, which accounts for nearly 65% of the world's petroleum reserves, and saw a 9.8% increase in millionaires and a 19.7% increase in assets.

Latin America's millionaire population meanwhile increased 9.7%. Globally, the wealthy had about 30% of their fortunes in equities, up from 28% the prior year. Fixed income represented 21%, down from 24%. Real estate and cash remained at 16 and 13% respectively.

Merrill Lynch said the ultra-rich did better because they found "select pockets" of high-growth investments in Asia, Latin America and the Mideast, while most investors stuck with stodgy earnings in North America and Europe.

North America held a slight edge over Europe in the population of millionaires, with 2.9 million to Europe's 2.8 million. Asia counted 2.4 million, Latin America 300,000 and Africa 100,000. But the world's millionaires are increasingly branching out from their home countries, with 65% paying attention to foreign markets and 30% buying homes overseas.