While Asia-Pacific’s HNWI wealth overtook Europe in 2009, the region has now surpassed Europe in terms of its HNWI population, expanding by 9.7% to 3.3 million, compared to Europe, where the number of HNWIs grew 6.3% to 3.1 million.
Asia-Pacific’s HNWI wealth gained 12.1% to US$10.8trn (£6.7trn, €7.5trn), exceeding Europe’s HNWI wealth of $10.2trn where the wealth increase was 7.2% in 2010. This makes Asia-Pacific the second largest region for both HNWI wealth and population after North America.
Within Asia-Pacific, India made its first appearance in the top 12 countries with the largest HNWI populations. The number of HNWIs in the country rose by 20.8% from 127,000 in 2009 to 153,000 in 2010.
Hong Kong claimed the most growth in numbers of HNWIs, with the proportion rising by 33.3%. It was followed by Vietnam, which increased by 33.1%, Poland with 28.7% and Sri Lanka with 27.1%.
However, 53% of the world’s HNWIs remain concentrated within three countries; the US, Japan and Germany.Alan Walker, head of financial services at Capgemini Consulting UK, said the concentration of HNWIs would fragment gradually over time.
“The concentration of HNWIs among these areas will continue to erode if the HNWI populations of emerging and developing markets continue to grow faster than those of developed markets,” he said.
