Rich pickings down under as our millionaire ranks swell THE number of Australian millionaires soared by 11 per cent last year as the Asia-Pacific boomed, putting the region on track to overtake the US in the rich stakes. A new report by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and financial consultants Capgemini found the number of Australians with more than $US1 million in investable assets, excluding the family home, rose to 192,900. The World Wealth Report also found the number of millionaires globally increased 8.3 per cent to 10.9 million last year and their wealth increased 9.7 per cent to reach $US42.7 trillion. The combined wealth of Australia's millionaires was up 12.1 per cent to $US582 billion. Australia overtook Italy last year to rank ninth in the league of rich people as wealthy Italians were hit by the weak European economy. Dorus van den Biezenbos from Capgemini said a 2.8 per cent increase in Australia's GDP and a 15 per cent increase in the value of the sharemarket were the biggest contributors to the good fortune of Australia's rich last year. The rising Australian dollar also helped, as did rising house prices combined with Australians' enthusiasm for property. The report noted the rich in the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) had 31 per cent of their wealth in real estate, versus 19 per cent globally. That predilection and strongly growing Asian economies should also see the region overtake the cultural home of the millionaire, the US, as early as next year. The US has 3.1 million millionaires, but the Asia-Pacific already has more millionaires than Europe and the number is expected to grow to 3.3 million this year. Mr van den Biezenbos said US GDP was slowing, while the Asia-Pacific would grow at almost 7 per cent a year until at least 2013. "We expect the region to take the No 1 position in 2011," he said. More than half of the number of millionaires globally (53 per cent) reside in just three countries: the US, Japan and Germany. Mr van den Biezenbos said a key finding of the report was that the rich were getting richer at a faster rate than the rest of the world. "They have more access to more interesting investment opportunities and they take more risks as well," he said. The more money you have the more money you can make.