According to a report by Capgemini SA and Bank of America Corp, the number of Chinese citizens with more than one million dollars available for investment rose to 534,000 last year, 12 percent more than in 2009.
China climbed to the fourth place in the list of countries by number of billionaires, only behind the United States, Japan and Germany.
The number of Chinese with at least 1,000 million of free availability also grew significantly during 2010, jumping from 64 to 115, according to the annual statistics of the world’s richest people published by Forbes magazine.
In regional terms, the Asia-Pacific surpassed Europe in the rich-to-population ratio for the first time last year.
The fortune of 3.3 million residents in Asia-Pacific region grew 12.1 percent in 2010 to the 10.8 billion dollars, exceeding the 10.2 billion hold by 3.1 million Europeans, according to the World Fortune Report 2011.
The stock market stock returns and the rise in the value of real estate were the main drivers of growth, said John Thiel, a senior executive of Bank of America.
Globally, the three richest men remain the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (74,000 million), followed by the owner of Microsoft, Bill Gates (56,000 million) and investor Warren Buffet (50,000 million dollars), according to Forbes.