The number of millionaires around the world rose to 8.7 million over the past year, fueled by a sharp increase in emerging markets such as South Korea, India and Russia.
The 10th annual World Wealth Report by investment group Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini said the number of high net-worth individuals - defined as those with assets of $1m excluding excluding their primary residence - grew by 6.5%.
The assets of the wealthy, meanwhile, increased 8.5% to $33.3 trillion, according to the survey. The super-wealthy - those with financial assets of more than $30m - grew by 10.2%, to 85,400 in 2005, according to the report.
The number of millionaires in the US increased 6.8% rose 7.2% in Canada. As a result, North America remained home to the largest number of millionaires and continued to have the largest amount of assets from this group.
But growth was strongest in some key emerging markets, the study found. South Korea's millionaire population rose 21.3%, India's increased 19.3%. Russia saw a 17.4% rise and South Africa a 15.9% rise.
In Europe, the number of millionaires grew by 4.5%, due in part to robust stock market returns in major eastern and western European nations in spite of poor economic performance in its largest economies.
'Real (economic) growth and market capitalization were the two main drivers of wealth creation, making 2005 a year of robust but decelerating growth for some regions following two consecutive years of strong global performance,' said Robert McCann, head of Merrill Lynch's Global Private Client Group.
'Market returns and economic indicators signaled that the creation of wealth was slowing somewhat in many regions of the world - most notably, North America - but HNWIs (high net-worth individuals) were still able to benefit from pockets of high performance last year.'
High oil prices helped fuel growth of fortunes in the Middle East, which accounts for nearly 65% of the world's petroleum reserves, and saw a 9.8% increase in millionaires.
