Asian millionaires have surpassed North American millionaires for the first time ever, according to a study by Capgemini consultancy and the Royal Bank of Canada. The Asia-Pacific region now has 3.37 million so-called high-net-worth individuals, calculated in terms of the number of people with over $1 million in investible assets.
That edged out the 3.35 million in North America. Asia had already edged out Europe in the number of millionaires in 2010.
China's ongoing economic boom churned out 562,000 millionaires in 2011, the fourth-highest number after the United States, Japan and Germany. While India and Hong Kong saw a downturn in the numbers of millionaires, the figures in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia all increased considerably.