World wealth swells with China and Japan contributing a bulk of super-rich. (Photo : Getty Images)
China and Japan overtake the United States in terms of the global super-rich population as noted by a recent annual world wealth report from a consultancy company.
According to Capgemini's records, North America is no longer the home for the most number of rich people in the world, with China and Japan of the Asia-Pacific region now in the lead.
Despite the economic slowdown in the country, China proved to be a major contributor in the swelling wealth of the region and the world, which is said to have reached as much as $58.7 trillion.
According to The Guardian, the 4 percent higher wealth was reached thanks to stock market gains and an increase in prices of properties all over the world.
The U.S. remained the home for most "high net worth individuals" (HNWI) in the world, with a population of nearly 4.5 million, while Japan ranks second with 2.7 million.
However, the growth of wealth of the super-rich in North America has significantly slowed down.
The Asia-Pacific region saw a 10-percent rise compared to last year's $17.4 trillion, while North America drop to second place with only 2 percent growth to $16.6 trillion in 2015.
China is the top 4 in terms of the HNWI population with 1 million super-rich people, tailing behind Germany at third with 1.2 million.
What is interesting here is that despite China's economic slowdown, it is dubbed as the country with the largest increase in the number of wealthy people at 16 percent compared to last year's records.
Among the super-rich Chinese are businessmen Jack Ma who owns and manages Alibaba and Dalian Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin.
According to The Guardian, this year's swell in wealth all over the world is quite significant considering that it added over 4.5 million HNWI globally after the onset of the financial crisis in 2009.
