Asia-Pacific soon to house more tycoons than N America: Boston Group

North America, now the world's biggest market for personal wealth, will be overtaken in 2018 by the Asia-Pacific region, which is producing an increasing number of millionaires, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group.

In the firm's annual review of private wealth, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan posted the strongest growth in personal riches at 30 per cent, driven by growing economies and high savings rates.

The only two regions not seeing double-digit growth in personal wealth were Western Europe and Japan.

This year, Asia-Pacific is expected to overtake Western Europe as the second most-affluent region, Boston Consulting said. It also said that, assuming North America's savings rates remain unchanged, Asia-Pacific will surpass it in 2018.

Private financial wealth includes cash and deposits, money market funds, listed securities, and offshore assets. It excludes investors' own businesses, real estate and luxury goods.

Millionaire households represent 1 per cent of all households globally.

In sheer numbers, the United States had the most billionaire and millionaire households and produced the highest number of new millionaires, largely due to the performance of the stock market. But overall the United States ranked seventh in the proportion of millionaire households, overtaken by Qatar, Switzerland and Singapore among the places with a higher density of millionaire households.

Japan saw a drop in its ranks of millionaires due mostly to the fall of the yen against the dollar.

Overall worldwide, global private financial wealth grew by 15 per cent in 2013, outpacing the prior year's 9 per cent.