The number of people with more than $1 million in financial assets grew by 6.5% globally in 2005-helped by particularly strong growth in emerging market countries, according to a new report.
   The World Wealth Report-an annual study by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini that is in its 10th year-concluded that 8.7 million people fall into the "high-net-worth" category.
   According to the report, the consolidation of wealth was particularly strong in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East-places where "emerging markets continue to play a moderate game of 'catch up' with major markets."
   Among the other findings:
    High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) wealth totaled $33.3 trillion, up 8.5% from 2005.
    Wealth generation was driven by real GDP gains and continued market capitalization growth.
    South Korea, India, Russia and South Africa had the highest growth in HNWI populations.
    HNWI financial wealth is expected to reach $44.6 trillion by 2010, growing at an annual rate of 6.0%.
   The population of those with more than $40 million in financial assets-described as Ultra-HNWIs in the report-also continues to grow. The number of people in this category stood at 85,400 in 2005, a 10.2% increase from a year earlier, according to the report.