The ranks of the world's rich swelled to 8m during 2007 as the wealthy proved immune to the strains across global economies in the latter half of the year.
There was a 4.5 per cent increase last year in so-called “high net worth individuals”, those with assets of more than $1m, according to the 2008 wealth report compiled by Citi Private Bank and Knight Frank, published on the 21 April.
There was particularly strong growth of wealthy populations in the emerging economies of China and India, as well as those countries that have access to natural resources such as Kazakhstan.
Countries such as Brazil, Canada, Australia and Russia also each added more than 8,500 wealthy residents in 2007 on the back of the commodity boom.
The report says that the rate of growth of high net worth individuals has outpaced growth in both gross domestic product, and GDP per head, which it believes indicates that the rich are getting richer relative to their respective countries.
“This is not a perfect measure of relative wealth growth across income levels,” it says, “but there is an indication here that the plutonomy model retained its strength through 2007 and is in rude health.”
The US is still home to most of the world's truly rich. High net worth individuals make up 1 per cent of the US population, with 3.1m people claiming to be dollar millionaires, and 460 to be billionaires.
Japan claims the next highest population of the wealthy, with 765,000 dollar millionaires, and then the UK, where there are 557,000.
The UK has seen the biggest increase in billionaires with a rise of 40 per cent in 2007, from 35 to 49. China's high net worth population grew by 14 per cent in 2007, and now number 373,000, almost as many as Germany.
The report says there was little change in the investment activity of the very rich during the credit crunch in 2007, other than a shift away from structured finance. It says the wealthy are “weathering the crunch” much better than institutional investors, owing to their diverse portfolios.
More than 50 per cent invest in property, which has fuelled a rapid growth in luxury house prices across the world.
London retains its spot as the world's most expensive place to live, followed by the tax exile haven Monaco and millionaires' playground St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
There were the first signs of trouble in paradise last year, however, with prime property in certain areas in Ireland and the US showing a fall in price. The report's authors warned that there were likely to be further falls this year as the economic slowdown caught up with the world's super-rich.
世界富人队伍在2007年已经膨胀到800万人，因为事实证明，全球各国去年下半年的经济压力对富人没有什么影响。
花旗私人银行(Citi Private Bank)以及莱坊(Knight Frank)汇编的2008年财富报告显示，所谓“高净值个人”（拥有资产超过100万美元的富人）的数量去年增加了4.5%。该报告已于4月21日公布。
在中国和印度等新兴经济体，富裕人口显著增长；在那些自然资源丰富的国家（如哈萨克斯坦）也是如此。
在大宗商品市场繁荣的背景下，2007年，巴西、加拿大、澳大利亚以及俄罗斯等国的富人数均增加超过8500人。
报告称，高净值个人的增长速度已经超过了GDP和人均GDP的增长。报告认为，这说明相对于他们的国家，这些富人正变得越来越富有。
“这并不是计算不同收入水平相对财富增长的完美方法，”报告表示，“但有迹象表明，在2007年，政治经济学模型依然强劲有效。”
美国仍然是大多数世界级富豪的家园。高净值个人占美国人口的1%，其中有310万人是百万富翁（按美元计），460人是亿万富翁。
日本富人数量仅次于美国，有76.5万个百万富翁（按美元计）；然后是英国，有55.7万个百万富翁。
2007年，英国亿万富翁的人数增加最多，从35个增加到49个，增幅40%。中国高净值人数增长了14%，达到37.3万，几乎与德国相同。
报告显示，在2007年的信贷危机中，除了减少结构性金融产品投资以外，那些富人的投资活动几乎没有什么变化。报告说，由于多样化的投资组合，富人们对此次危机的抵抗能力要好于机构投资者。
超过50%的富人投资于房地产，这也促进了世界范围内豪宅价格的快速上涨。
伦敦保持了世界最昂贵居住地的地位，紧随其后的是避税天堂摩纳哥以及百万富翁们的休养胜地圣-让-费拉角(St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat)。
不过，随着爱尔兰和美国某些地区的最优地产出现价格下跌，去年出现了“天堂里的烦恼”的最初信号。报告作者警告人们，随着经济减速影响到世界超级富豪，房地产价格今年很有可能进一步下滑。