Friday, June 10 2005 10:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: An additional 6,00,000 millionaires were created around the world in 2004, with North America and Asia, including India, leading Europe in the wealth stakes, according to a report released yesterday (Jun 9, 2005).

There are now an estimated 8.3 million people who can claim to have $1 million, excluding their main residence, according to the 2005 World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

The report estimated the net worth of the world's wealthy elite at $30.2 trillion, an 8.2 percent rise on 2003.

North America has about 2.7 million people worth at least $1million - high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) - 10 percent more than the last report and overtaking Europe, which has 2.6 million.

The Asia-Pacific region has 2.3 million, up more than 8.0 percent, and Asia's growth rate was twice as fast as Europe's.

"The two main drivers of personal wealth creation - economic growth and market capitalization - worked together to generate the strongest growth in high-net-worth wealth that we've seen in more than three years," said James Gorman, an executive vice president of Merrill Lynch.

"Looking regionally, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and India saw the highest rates of HNWI population growth, while wealthy people in South Africa and the Middle East benefited from the rise in commodity and oil prices.

"Growth generally lagged in Europe, with only two nations - the United Kingdom and Spain - showing growth comparable to the worldwide rate," Gorman said.