600,000 new dollar millionaires created in 2004

June 10, 2005

According to this years edition of the World Wealth Report conducted by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the number of millionaires worldwide increased by 600,000 to 8.3m in 2004. The report defines a millionaire as an individual who has assets worth more than $1m excluding their primary residence.

The combined wealth of all these high net worth individuals (HNWI's) exceeds $30 trillion. At a regional level, Australia, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong were the strongest performers - Australia added 47 new millionaires a day throughout 2004, whilst India added almost 25 a day.

The following is a regional breakdown:


 * North America: Number of millionaires grew by 9.7%; total wealth grew 10.2%.
 * Asia-Pacific: Number of millionaires grew by 8.2%; total wealth grew 8.5%.
 * Europe: Number of millionaires grew by 4.1%; total wealth grew 3.7%.
 * Latin America: Number of millionaires grew by 6.3%; total wealth grew 7.9%.
 * Middle East: Number of millionaires grew by 9.5%; total wealth grew 28.9%.