Hong Kong - The number of US dollar millionaires grew by 22.7 per cent in India and 20.3 per cent in China last year as the ranks of wealthy in the Asia-Pacific region swelled to 2.8 million, according to a report Friday.

Vietnam saw the fastest growth in millionaire numbers with a 24.2 per cent increase although its overall number of high net worth individuals with assets worth over one million US dollars was just 1,200.

In 2007, China had 415,000 millionaires and India 123,000, the report said. The country with the most millionaires in the region, however, was Japan with 1.51 million, a 2.2 per cent increase on 2006.

South Korea's millionaire population grew by 18.9 per cent to 118,000 while Indonesia's grew by 16.8 per cent to 23,000, Singapore's by 15.3 per cent to 77,000 and Hong Kong's by 10.2 per cent to 95,000.

After Japan, the countries with the slowest growth in millionaire numbers were Taiwan, up 7.8 per cent to 71,000 and Australia, up 7.1 per cent to 172,000.

The report by wealth management company Merrill Lynch and consulting company Capgemini found that Asia-Pacific's growth in millionaire numbers was 6 per cent above the global average.

The region now has five of the 10 fastest growing high net worth individual populations in the world, according to the report titled The State of Asia Pacific's Wealth.

In 2007, the number of "super-rich" people with assets of 30 million US dollars or more grew by 16.4 per cent to 20,400 people in Asia-Pacific, nearly double the 8.8 per cent global growth.

Millionaires in Hong Kong tend to be the richest with the average high net worth individual having assets of 5.4 million US dollars, followed by China with 5.1 million US dollars and Singapore with 4.9 million US dollars.

In Vietnam, the average US dollar millionaire has 4 million US dollars, in Indonesia and India 3.6 million US dollars, in Taiwan 3.3 million US dollars, Australia 3.2 million US dollars and South Korea 2.7 million US dollars.

Japan, which has more than 40 per cent of the region's millionaires, also has the least wealthy millionaires with each high net worth individual averaging assets of 2.5 million US dollars last year.

The region's millionaires had assets totaling 9.5 trillion US dollars last year and the report predicts that figure will grow to 13.9 trillion US dollars by 2012, growing at an average rate of 7.9 per cent.

"While growth prospects in the near term may be compromised by the global slowdown, the long term potential is strong," the report concluded.

"Asia-Pacific is expected to grow faster than the 7.7 per cent projected growth per annum through 2012. This will result in Asia-Pacific replacing Europe as the second-largest regional repository of high net worth individual wealth." (dpa)