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But, according to the 36-page World Wealth Report, published by Merrill Lynch and consultants Capgemini, there could be more high net-worth individuals in China than in the UK by next year.

However, by next year, the exponential growth of China means the country is in line to produce even more high net-worth individuals than the UK’s 2.1 per cent increase on 2007, a total of495,000 individuals. The number of dollar millionaires in China currently stands at 414,900.

High net-worth is defined as individuals with at least £500,000 of investable assets and there are more than 10m individuals worldwide in this bracket, an increase of 6 per cent from 2006.

The report added that growth in the UK was driven by strong gross domestic product.

The increase of high net-worth individuals in the UK came about despite a 1.5 per cent fall in

UK market capitalisation compared with more than 24 per cent in 2006.

Nick Tucker, market leader for UK and Ireland global wealth management at Merrill Lynch, said: “High net-worth individuals in the UK have increased by 2.1 per cent, significantly less than the 8.1 per cent growth of 2006, lower than the European average of 3.7 per cent. By next year China could be ahead of the UK in terms of the number of such individuals.”

Last year was a story of two halves, the report added, with steady global growth in the first half of 2007, followed by diverging paths between mature and emerging economies in the second half.

The report stated: “In early 2007, strong economic gains spurred impressive performances in equity markets and various investment products, reflecting higher levels of investor confidence. Emerging markets proved resilient and posted robust gains in the second half of 2007, even as uncertainty grew in mature markets. Many emerging economies converted sharp increases in energy and commodity prices into sources of high profitability and significant growth.”

The report highlighted that China, India and Brazil have the highest high net-worth population growth at country level and this will provide many opportunities in the advice sector.

Chris Gant, head of wealth management in the UK and Ireland, said: “As the wealthy are getting wealthier and as the number of high net-worth individuals increase there is more of a need for advice. There was a polarisation between client advisory and a product driven approach, now we the approaches are converging. We are seeing a move towards a fee-based approach. There is still growth in the wealth market especially in the emerging markets but also in mature markets.”