Canadian millionaire club to swell by nearly 700,000

A new study suggests that Canada’s millionaire club is going to have a lot more members over the next decade.

The study, released by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, predicts the number of Canada’s millionaires will surge to more than 2.4 million by 2020 — up by more than 32 per cent from the current 1.7 million.

The study also says the assets of those millionaires will reach $6.77 trillion.

The surge in wealth is partly due to Canada’s strong economy, particularly in the resource sector.

Globally, wealth among millionaire households could more than double over the next decade in 25 major economies, growing from an estimated $92 trillion this year to $202 trillion in 2020.

Despite the growth of emerging markets, developed nations are expected to remain the centres of global wealth, with 43 per cent of the world’s wealth held by millionaires in the U.S.

Among the reports other findings:

• Among emerging markets, Deloitte expects China to continue to be the driving force in the growth of millionaire wealth, followed by Brazil and Russia. Of the 25 countries examined in this study, China and South Korea will join the top 10 countries in terms of the total number of millionaires by 2020.

• While Switzerland may have the highest per capita wealth overall of the countries studied with $4.2 million in 2011, Singapore may rank No. 1 in 2015 and 2020 with $4.5 million and $5.4 million, respectively, in per capita wealth.

• Australia may make an entry into the top 10 in 2020 with 1.6 million millionaire households; the country is also projected to experience the fastest growth rate of the developed economies.

• The wealth of millionaire households in the U.S. could reach $87 trillion in 2020, up from $39 trillion in 2011. In 2020, 43 percent of the world’s wealth held by millionaire households is predicted to be in the U.S. While this is only a slight increase from 42 percent presently, the number of millionaire households in the country is projected to increase from an estimated 10.5 million in 2011 to 20.6 million in 2020.

• Among the forecasts for each of the individual 50 U.S. states, California is expected to remain the state with the wealthiest households, while New Jersey will continue to have the greatest density of millionaire households. The East Coast could see the highest growth rates; New York and Florida will together add 1.5 million new millionaire households by 2020.

- Canadian Press and Staff