Top 10 Countries With Most Millionaires: Capgemini/RBC

If anything, the number of millionaires in France keeps growing. In 2011, France saw its population of HNWIs jump 1.9% to 404,000 from 396,000. C'est formidable!

5) United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth II marked her 60-year reign with a diamond jubilee celebration earlier this month that featured regional visits throughout the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. While on her travels, Her Majesty waved to thousands of her British subjects—and to be sure, many among them were millionaires such as herself.

Great Britain is weathering the eurozone crisis better than its European neighbors across the Channel, and according to the Capgemini/RBC report, the U.K.'s GDP outlook for 1.2% growth in 2013 exceeds both Germany's 0.7% and France's 0.7%.

That's good news for U.K. millionaires, whose population slipped 2.9% to 441,000 HNWIs in 2011 from 454,000 in 2010.

4) China

The growth rate in the number of Chinese millionaires exceeded any other country's worldwide in 2011. HNWIs in China leaped 5.2% to a population of 562,000 in 2011 compared with 535,000 in 2010. This phenomenal growth happened in the face of rising inflation, tempered prior credit excesses and declining exports.

But by 2013, the Capgemini/RBC World Wealth Report predicts, more policy initiatives are likely to have materialized to control debt contagion and spur growth, helping push world GDP expansion up to a forecast 2.9%, which could push growth in China to a forecast 8.5%.

3) Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkel's adherence to austerity may have made her unpopular with other eurozone nations, but her hard line has at least until now ensured that Germany sets the pace with the European Union's "culture of stability," as Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy calls it.

That culture of stability also contributes to Germany's reputation for providing a favorable environment for millionaires. In 2011—in the face of the worsening eurozone crisis—the number of HNWIs in Germany grew 3% to 951,000 from 924,000 in 2011.

That rate of growth in millionaires was higher than that of any other European nation.

2) Japan

Cataclysmic tsunami, earthquake and nuclear crisis aside, Japan in 2011 saw its population of millionaires grow 4.8% to 1.82 million from 1.74 million in 2010.

This growth came in the face of Japan's whopping public debt to GDP ratio of 229.8%.

In August 2011, Moody's Investor Service downgraded the nation's sovereign rating to Aa3, "saying Japan would find it difficult to reduce its huge debt, given the disaster and the prospects for weak economic growth," Capgemini/RBC reported.

However, Japan is known for its ability to withstand a crisis, and indeed, after the natural disasters household savings rose in Japan last year to 7.3% of disposable household income from 6.2% in 2010 because private consumption fell sharply after the earthquake.

1) United States

Despite much hand-wringing over political gridlock in Washington and the unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's, the United States last year overwhelmingly remained the No. 1 country worldwide for millionaires.

The population of high-net-worth individuals dropped 1.2% to 3.07 million in 2011 from 3.10 million in 2010, according to the Capgemini/RBC 2012 World Wealth Report, but that number is still almost double that of the United States' closest competitor, Japan.

U.S. equities performed quite well in early 2011, amid signs of recovery in the U.S. economy and in corporate profits and cash balances, Capgemini/RBC said.

"Investors were also cheered that U.S. firms were relatively unscathed by the global supply-chain crunch induced by the Japanese earthquake, and the impact of increased oil prices due to civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa," the report says.

However, the U.S. stock market deteriorated in May as the European debt crisis dragged on, and uncertainty persisted over the country's debt ceiling. U.S. stocks took another hit after the S&P downgrade in August.

"For the year, investors remained risk-averse overall, and favored dividend-paying companies and multinational blue chips," CapGemini/RBC reported. "Going forward, the outlook for the U.S. equities market remains cautiously optimistic, with the housing and employment pictures beginning to improve, and signs the U.S. will escape a double-dip recession."