Booming Asia had more millionaires than Europe for the first time last year and is fast closing in on North America for the top spot, a report released Thursday said。

　　The Asia-Pacific region was home to 3.3 million people in 2010 worth $1 million or more, excluding their homes, an increase of roughly 10 percent from the year before, according to the 15th annual World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch's wealth management division and consultancy Capgemini。

　　Asia's growth outpaced Europe, where so-called high net worth individuals increased 6 percent to 3.1 million, and puts it within reach of North America, where the number of wealthy rose 8.6 percent to 3.4 million。

　　The report's findings illustrate how Asia's economies are growing much more quickly than developed countries and, in the process, minting scores of new millionaires and billionaires. Asia's growth has been powered by China and India, whose economies grew 9-10 percent last year while European and North American growth was in the low single digits。

　　"It is entirely conceivable that Asia would overtake North America in the near future," said Wilson So, a managing director at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. "I would be surprised if that does not happen very soon."

　　The US, Japan and Germany still account for just over half the world's 10.9 million wealthy, while China is in fourth place with 535,000, about 58,000 more than in 2009. Australia has moved up one notch to ninth place, edging out Italy, while India cracked the top 12 for the first time. It replaced Spain, which fell to 14th。

　　While 2010 was the first time that Asia has overtaken Europe in absolute numbers of wealthy people, it is the second year that Asia's combined wealth was bigger than Europe's。

　　The world's wealthy were worth a total of $42.7 trillion in 2010. Asia's share of that wealth amounted to $10.8 trillion, putting it in second place for the second year in a row, just behind North America's $11.6 trillion。

　　Six of the 10 economies with the fastest growing millionaire populations were in Asia, led by Hong Kong and Vietnam, which each saw annual growth of 33 percent. Others included Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore and India。

　　本周四发布的最新报告显示，亚洲的百万富翁人数在2010年首次超过欧洲，与排名第一的北美差距也迅速缩小。

　　美林公司财富管理部门和凯捷咨询公司共同发布的第15届年度《世界财富报告》称， 2010年，亚太地区身价百万美元(不包括房产)以上的富翁人数为330万，比上一年增加了大约10%。

　　亚洲的增长超过了欧洲，与北美拉近了距离。欧洲号称高资产净值人数增加了6%，达到310万。北美富翁人数增加了8.6%，达到340万。

　　调查报告显示出，亚洲经济体的增长速度远超发达国家，在此过程中，新涌现出大量的百万富翁和亿万富翁。亚洲的经济增长受中国和印度推动，两国去年经济增长率达到9%至10%，而欧洲和北美的增长率只是数值很低的个位数。

　　美林公司全球财富管理部门总经理威尔逊•索尔说：“完全可以预见，亚洲富翁的人数不久将超过北美。如果总是超不过，我反而觉得奇怪。”

　　美国、日本、德国的富翁人数仍然占世界富人人数过半。中国位列第四，富翁人数为53.5万，比2009年多出5.8万人。澳大利亚上升了一位，排名第九，挤走了意大利。印度首次跻身前12位，取代了滑落至第14位的西班牙。

　　2010年，亚洲富翁的绝对人数首次超过欧洲，而富翁总资产已连续第二年超过欧洲。

　　2010年，全球富人资产总计42.7万亿美元。亚洲富人资产达到10.8万亿美元，连续第二年排名第二，仅次于北美(11.6万亿美元)。

　　百万富翁人数增长最快的十个经济体中，有六个位于亚洲，中国香港和越南“领跑”，年增长率均为33%；其他分别为斯里兰卡、印度尼西亚、新加坡和印度。