Demographic highlights from the Merrill Lynch and Capgemini wealth study. Gains in global productivity and rising market-capitalization rates made the wealthy wealthier last year, according to the Merrill Lynch and Capgemini 2005 World Wealth Report. Total wealth among people with at least $1 million in financial assets increased at a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% to $30.8 trillion in 2004. The number of people in the million-plus bracket increased 7.3% to 8.3 million.

The Asia-Pacific region saw the world’s highest growth rates among individual countries for the second year running; a result, says the Wealth Report, of China’s economic expansion. The high-net-worth population of the region grew 8.2% and its wealth increased 8.5% to $7.2 trillion. Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia led the way with high-net-worth population growth rates of 22.4% for Singapore, 18.8% for Hong Kong and 14.8% for Australia.

North America (ex Mexico), which exceeds all other regions in high-net-worth population and its accumulated wealth, also saw the fastest regional growth rates in the developed world last year. Helped along by low interest rates in the U.S. and the happy effect of high energy prices on Canada’s oil and gas industries, the region’s high-net-worth population increased 9.7% to 2.7 million in 2004, while the wealth in that population’s hands grew 10.2% to $9.3 trillion. Last year U.S millionaires saw the fastest annual increase in personal wealth since 1997.

Continental Europe was a weak spot in 2004, however. Germany’s rigid labor laws and low per-worker productivity continued to play havoc there. Things were little better France and Italy. Europe’s high-net-worth population grew 4.1% last year. The amount of wealth held by high-net-worth individuals, meanwhile, grew just 3.7% to $8.9 trillion.

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