Asia to overtake US as top spot for millionaires The report predicts that the number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region will expand by nearly 10 per cent annually during the next few years. It's therefore on course to be at the top of the world's rich list again next year. By 2014, we do expect Asia-Pacific to reclaim its position as the region with the highest millionaire population and also register the highest level of millionaire wealth. By 2015, millionaire wealth in Asia Pacific is expected to reach US$15.9 trillion," said Barend Janssens, head of emerging markets at RBC Wealth Management. He predicted that will attract even more business to the financial centres of Hong Kong and Singapore, as they are tried and trusted by the Asian population. The experts are cautious in predicting long-term wealth leaders among the world's regions as there are many factors in play. "The degree of the growth or decline in the wealthy population in both Asia-Pacific and North America depends on a variety of economic and market factors such as GDP growth, national savings and equity performance," said Claire Sauvanaud, vice-president at Capgemini Asia-Pacific. While we expect Asia-Pacific to be the global leader for population and wealth in the near future, the variables at play make it difficult to project longer term. The details of the report show that within the region, Hong Kong and India showed the biggest gains in millionaire population and wealth in 2012, following steep declines in 2011. Hong Kong's wealthy population grew by 35.7 per cent and their wealth by 37.2 per cent, while India's wealthy population grew by 22.2 per cent and their wealth by 23.4 per cent. Japan and Taiwan were the only markets to experience single-digit increases in their wealthy population, though both still showed steady growth at 4.4 per cent and 7.0 per cent respectively. Those meeting the criteria of being super-rich are labelled as "high net worth individuals" by the report writers. They are defined as having US$1 million or more in investable assets.