India is home to the fourth largest population of millionaires in the Asia Pacific region, with 2.36 lakh such high net worth individuals, according to a report.
According to the Asia Pacific 2016 Wealth Report by New World Wealth, India was ranked among the top five Asia Pacific countries in terms of number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs). Japan topped the list with 12.60 lakh people.
HNWIs (millionaires) were defined as individuals with net assets of $1 million or more.
As per the report India has 2.36 lakh high net worth individual.
At the end of 2015, there were 12.6 lakh millionaires in Japan, while China ranked second with 6.54 lakh high net worth individuals and Australia was at the third place with 2.9 lakh millionaires.
Contrary to the net world individual, India has one of the lowest per capita income in the region. On per capita basis, India was last among the bottom three, as the average wealth per person stood at $3,500 while that of Australia, which topped the ranking, stood at $204,400.
"As reflected, Australians are the wealthiest individuals in Asia Pacific with $204,000 in wealth per person, whilst people in Pakistan are the poorest with $1,600 per person," the report noted.
An interesting fact is that while India is among the top five Asia Pacific countries in terms of total private wealth held. India's total individual wealth stood at $ 4,365 billion. China topped the list with a total individual wealth of $17,254 billion.
Asia Pacific high net worth individual numbers have increased by 115 per cent over the past 15 years, compared to the worldwide growth rate of 82 per cent. “The numbers in the Asia Pacific are expected to rise by 50 per cent over next 10 years, reaching around 5.2 million by 2025,” it added.
Over this period (by 2025), India is expected to see a 105 per cent growth in HNWI population to 483,800 from 236,000, the report added.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld