Millionaire households growing in China

Ranking third on the worldwide list of millionaire households, the number of millionaires in China grew to 1.4 million last year, up 15.6 percent year-on-year, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group.

The number of millionaires in China should continue to enjoy robust growth, driven by the large number of initial public offerings expected in the country as well as by new wealth generated mainly by entrepreneurs, the report said.

Around 175,000 households joined the ranks of the world's millionaires last year, and most of them were from developing economies, particularly China and India, said the report.

Although the number of millionaire households fell by a combined 182,000 in the United States and Japan, the two countries still have the most millionaire households, with 5.1 million in the US and 1.6 million in Japan, according to BCG.

Emerging economies drove the modest growth in global wealth last year and were the source of most of the world's new millionaires.

Global private wealth growth last year was primarily driven by rapidly developing emerging economies, with total private wealth increasing by 18.5 percent in emerging economies including China, Brazil, India and Russia, and declining by 0.9 percent in North America, 0.4 percent in Western Europe, and 2 percent in Japan, the report said.

According to the report, the growth of global private wealth slowed to 1.9 percent last year, compared to 6.8 percent growth in 2010 and 9.6 percent growth in 2009.

The slide in growth was mainly due to global economic uncertainty and struggling equity markets in major developed economies.

BCG estimates that by 2016, the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan will overtake Europe and become the second wealthiest after North America. Europe, previously the wealthiest region in the world but surpassed by North America in 2010, will slide down to third place.