Affluence is touching more and more Chinese, according to a report released Tuesday in Beijing by Bain & Co. and China Merchants Bank.
The number of Chinese high-net-worth individuals, those with at least $1.6 million in investable assets, stood at some 700,000 at the end of 2012, more than twice as many as four years earlier, the report said. This year, that number will increase by 20%.
The report found that average individual investable assets per high-net-worth person were $4.7 million at the end of 2008, and were on track to grow to $5.2 million by the end of 2013.
At present, 20 provinces in China have high-net-worth populations exceeding 10,000, and five new ones have joined the elite group since 2010.
Heilongjiang benefits from natural resources and the reform and development of industrial bases. Chongqing gets a boost from the development of central and western regions and coastal businesses that have relocated to the west.
High-net-worth population increases in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia resulted from growth in the coal and natural resources industries.
As the ranks of China's wealthy grow, investment behaviors continue to evolve, researchers found. "Wealth preservation," "quality of life" and "children's education" topped the list of wealth management objectives in the new report.
"Wealth creation," the number one wealth management objective in the 2009 survey, dropped to fourth place.
