Asia Pacific Region has more millionaires than North America

The current Asia-Pacific Wealth Report 2015 showed Asia Pacific has a larger number of high net worth individuals compared to North America.

A recent study indicates Asia Pacific region had exceeded North America with the number of high net worth individuals.

According to the Asia-Pacific Wealth Report 2015 published by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management consultancy firm, Asia Pacific beats North America in the number of millionaires. The region has 4.69 million rich individuals while North America has 4.68 million.

High net worth individuals are those who have money with a minimum of $1 million to invest aside from primary assets. Asia Pacific high net worth individuals grew by 8.5%. That means 4.7 million rich people in 2014 only. Correspondingly, its wealth increased by 11.4%, which is worth $15.8 trillion; the highest among regions all over the world.

"Asia-Pacific continues its tremendous run in wealth creation and doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon," head of RBC Wealth Management in Asia, Barend Janssens, commented.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported Asia-Pacific millionaires tend to have more cash than equities. While the majority of millionaires all over the world have more equities than cash.

On that note, Janssens said the current development would benefit firms. "Despite some recent economic issues, the region's wealth is expected to lead global growth and with this, will provide tremendous opportunities for the wealth management firms that are well positioned to meet the increasingly complex needs of HNWIs in Asia-Pacific."

Over the years, India and China have been coherently driving wealth in Asia. From 2006, 10% of the wealthiest people came from the two countries. It contributed 17% of 2006 global wealth.

China declared $4.5 trillion wealth last year with 890, 000 millionaires. Likewise, India has 198, 000 with $785 billion wealth.

The Tribune India reported the country was ranked 11^th for the highest number of millionaires. It said various aspects helped India's growth. The elected prime minister had boosted confidence from investors. Along with lower oil prices, it also contributes to India's strong performance in the stock market.

Other countries like Thailand and Indonesia had seen great improvements on their economy as well. The region's overall wealth is expected to reach $16.2 trillion by the end of the year.