World millionaires' wealth totals $46.2 trillion, over 3 times US GDP

The combined wealth of the world’s millionaires increased by 10 percent in 2012 to $46.2 trillion. This is more than three times the annual economic output in the US. Another million people were also added to the list of super-rich in the past year.

According to the World Wealth Report 2013 there are a total of 12 million millionaires around the globe, with the US topping the list of countries home to the super-rich.

In the US the number of millionaires shifted grew by 11.5 percent in 2012 to 3.73 million, who's combined wealth is estimated at $12.7 trillion.

Asia-Pacific region used to be in first place and is now running second, with the combined wealth of its 3.68 million millionaires totaling $12 trillion. The number of super-rich investors in the region was up more than 9 percent from 2011.

Japan boasts 1.9 million people on the super-rich list, while another million are Germans. The UK comes next with the fifth-largest group of 465,000 millionaires.

Meanwhile the whole of Africa is home to just 140,000 millionaires. Still the figure climbed 10 percent year on year in 2012.

A total of 3.4 million high net worth individuals are Europeans. The number of super-wealthy grew slower in the single-currency region, where the economy has now been in recession for 18 months. The number grew by 7.5 percent compared to 2011.

The researchers also calculated the number of multi-millionaires among the super-rich individuals, having found that there are a total of 110,000 people worth $30 million or more, and hold assets worth more than $16 trillion between them.

Just over a million people hold a combined $10 trillion in assets are "mid-tier millionaires".
Each of the remaining millionaires holds between $1 million and $3 million. There a 10.8 million such people in the world.

The World Wealth Report was prepared by French finance technology firm Capgemini together with Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management. Anyone with $1 million or more in "investable assets" made it onto the list. The definition excludes the value of a main home and any "consumer durables" including cars, The Guardian says.

The authors of the study collected information on assets in 71 countries around the world, which account for 98 percent of global earnings.