The number of households in the Netherlands with 1 million US dollars (approx. 760.000 euros) increased by 12.9 percent last year.

The global wealth study, undertaken yearly by Boston Consulting Group, showed that there were 191,000 "dollar millionaire" households in the Netherlands. Their combined wealth comes to 396 billion US dollars, up by 8.7 percent from 2011.

Last year there were also 149 Dutch households with more than 100 million dollars. Their combined wealth comes to 52 billion dollars.

The general increase in the number of millionaires is attributed to invested (pension) funds doing better thanks to the improved performance of the equity markets in 2012.

Millionaire households globally

Globally, private wealth increased by 7.8 per cent in 2012, reaching 135.5 trillion US dollars. Over a third of this (39 per cent) was held by 1 per cent of all households.

The total number of millionaire households globally increased by 10 per cent, reaching 13.8 million. Private wealth is expected to rise by 4.8 per cent annually to reach 171 trillion US dollars in 2017.

Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) and its new wealth will account for the bulk of global growth. By 2017 this region, which includes China and Australia, will overtake North America as the largest wealth region.

Number of millionaire households (1000s)

Proportion of millionaire households by country

Sources: BCG, nu.nl