Australia has 190,000 millionaires

Wealthy Australians might have spent most of the year weeping over the shrinking size of their investment portfolio, but it’s not all bad news.

Wealthy Australians might have spent most of the year weeping over the shrinking size of their investment portfolio, but it’s not all bad news.

A new report from Boston Consulting Group has revealed that the number of households with $US1 million in “assets under management” leapt from 148,000 to 190,000 in 2007, putting Australia 10th on the list of 62 countries with the most millionaires.

The report provides a conservative view of wealth, including only assets such as cash deposits, money-market funds and listed securities, and excluding high-value assets such as an investor’s own businesses, their residential property and luxury goods.

Australia’s strong performance – wealth has grown at an average annual rate of 12% in the past five years to hit $2.5 trillion in 2007 – has a lot to do with our compulsory superannuation system, which ensures a steady flow of money into individuals’ assets under management.

And despite the current financial turmoil, BCG’s leader of financial services in Australia, Matthew Rogozinski, expects Australian wealth should continue to grow at around 10% a year over the medium term.

The number of millionaire households worldwide grew by 11.2% in 2007 to 10.7 million. BCG says global wealth grew by 4.9% to $US109.5 trillion, compared to a growth rate of 8% in 2006.

The US leads the world in terms of the most millionaires, with 4.9 million, followed by Japan, Britain, Germany and China.

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