China Will Surpass Japan in Wealth by 2017

Global household wealth will grow by nearly 50 percent in the next five years to $330 trillion, with the Chinese overtaking the Japanese as the world's second richest people, Credit Suisse said in a report on Wednesday.

The number of millionaires could jump by more than 60 percent to 46 million in 2017, with twice as many Chinese in that category than in 2012, while the United States would still account for more than a third of the world's most wealthy.

"If the recent growth trends continue, China could reach the real wealth level that the USA enjoyed in 1992, which would represent a jump of 22 'USA years' in just five," Credit Suisse said in its Global Wealth Report 2012.

Global household wealth - measured as households' financial and non-financial assets minus debt - rose by about 1 percent on constant exchange rates over the past year, the smallest increase since the 2008 Lehman collapse.

Just 0.6 percent of the world's people have assets worth more than a million dollars apiece but collectively they account for nearly 40 percent of global wealth. Meanwhile, nearly 70 percent of the population has net assets below $10,000, or, less than 3.3 percent of global wealth in total.