India ranks eighth on global multimillionaires list

LONDON: India has more multimillionaires than Australia, Russia and France.

The latest wealth index by New World Wealth that looks at multimillionaires — an individual with net assets of at least $10 million — has ranked India eighth in the global rich list, below countries such as the US, China, Germany and the UK but above Singapore and Canada.

India is home to 14,800 multimillionaires. Mumbai is home to the highest number of them — 2,700, as many as that in Munich.

Mumbai is the only Indian entry in the top 30 cities for multimillionaires. Hong Kong is the city with the largest number of multi-millionaires (15,400), followed by New York (14,300), London (9,700), Moscow (7,600), Los Angeles (7,400) and Singapore (6,600).

As far as countries are concerned, the US tops the list with 183,500 people worth over $10 million, followed by China (26,600), Germany (25,400), UK (21,700), Japan (21,000), Switzerland (18,300) and Hong Kong (15,400).

Over the past 10 years, millionaire and multimillionaire numbers have grown at vastly different rates. Millionaire numbers worldwide have gone up by 58% during this period, whilst multi-millionaire numbers have gone up by 71%.

There are currently just over 13 million millionaires in the world (as of June 2014). Approximately 495,000 of these individuals can be classified as multi-millionaires.

When it comes to millionaires, the US tops the list followed by Japan and the UK. China and India are both significantly lower on this list than they are on the multi-millionaire list. Russia, which ranks ninth in the world for multi-millionaires, only ranks 18th in the world for millionaires.

"The higher growth of multi-millionaires can be put down to a number of factors including: a widening wealth gap at the top-end, a rising rate of conversion of millionaires into multi-millionaires and strong growth in countries that have a high multi-millionaire to millionaire ratio (the likes of Russia and India)," the report says.

In terms of regional performance, South America was the stand-out, with multi-millionaire growth of 265% over the 10-year period. Other top performers included Australasia (182% growth) and Africa (142% growth). In terms of country performance, major countries that registered 200% plus growth included Russia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Angola. All are emerging markets.

Australia was the top performing developed market with growth of just over 190%