PARIS: Move away, American millionaires, your Asian counterparts are now wealthier than you.
Asian millionaires now control more wealth than their peers in North America, Europe and other regions, according to a new World Wealth Report from Capgemini, a consulting group.
Asian millionaires saw their wealth jump by 9.9% in 2015, while poor performance in the equity markets in the US and Canada slowed growth in North America to a sluggish 2.3% last year.
Latin American millionaires, meanwhile, suffered a decline in net worth of 3.7%, driven by political volatility and a turbulent stock market in Brazil. Europe's growth was steady, with a 4.8% increase led by Spain and the Netherlands.
Asians' net worth has soared over the past several years. The total wealth of Asia's richest residents totaled $17.4 trillion in 2015, up from $8.4 trillion in 2006. North America's wealthy have $16.6 trillion socked away, up from $11.2 trillion in 2006.
Asia also surpassed North America in terms of the number of millionaires in 2014. And their ranks grew even more last year, soaring 9.4%.
Of the 5.1 million Asian millionaires in 2015, 2.7 million came from Japan and 1 million were from China. There were 4.5 million US millionaires.
Capgemini found the growth in Asia was driven mainly by financial services, technology and health care industries.
"If past growth rates hold, Asia-Pacific is likely to continue to be a dominant force over the next decade, representing two-fifths of the world's HNWI wealth, more than that of Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa combined," Capgemini said.
Earlier this year, Oxfam found that the richest 1% now have as much wealth as the rest of the world combined.