HONG KONG – Some 300,000 people joined Asia’s millionaire ranks last year, according to a new world wealth report that also found the region slipped behind a rebounding North America.

The report, released Wednesday by CapGemini and Royal Bank of Canada, is the latest of several recent surveys highlighting the strong rise in the region’s wealthy while also hinting at persistent inequality.

It found that Asian millionaires grew 9.4 percent in 2012 to 3.68 million people, up from 3.37 million the year before. Their combined wealth rose 12.2 percent to $12 trillion.

The report defines wealthy as those with at least $1 million in liquid assets. It covered 10 Asian countries and territories.

Asia was surpassed only by North America, where the millionaire population grew 11.5 percent to 3.73 million, with combined wealth rising 9.8 percent to $12.7 trillion.

Asia’s millionaire population outnumbered Europe’s for the first time in 2009, and in 2011 edged out North America for top spot, according to previous editions of the report. Asia is forecast reclaim the crown, perhaps as early as 2014.

The superrich, defined as those worth at least $30 million, grew even faster. Their ranks in Asia jumped 15.4 percent last year to 25,000, while combined wealth rose 18 percent, about double the global average. Earlier this month, the Hurun Report, which tracks China’s wealthy, said surging stock prices helped mint 64 billionaires this year, raising the total to 315, compared with none a decade ago.