The number of millionaires in Ireland grew slightly last year, according to a survey of international wealth by investment firm Merrill Lynch and management consultants Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Conor O'Clery, International Business Editor, reports from New York
There are now 15,000 "high net worth individuals" in the Republic with financial assets, excluding real estate, worth at least $1 million, according to the 2002 World Wealth Report which was published yesterday in New York.
With a population estimated at 3.8 million, this means that, if the report is accurate, one out of every 253 people in the Republic is a millionaire in US dollar terms.
This is "slightly more" than a year earlier, according to the survey.
Figures were not compiled for individual countries last year, but "through analysis we got a sense of what it was in Ireland", said a Merrill Lynch representative.
Despite the volatile financial markets and widespread economic downturn, just under 200,000 people around the world joined the ranks of "high net worth individuals" last year, an increase of 3 per cent, bringing the total to 7.1 million.
"This rise is the slowest wealth growth reported in the World Wealth Report since it was first published in 1997," said Mr Michael Marks, chairman of Merrill Lynch's International Private Client group.
The number rose by 6 per cent in 2000 and 18 per cent in 1999.
The number of "high net worth individuals" in Europe rose by only 0 .1 per cent, compared to 1.7 per cent in North America, 7.1 per cent in Asia and 8 per cent in Latin America.
The compilers of the report based their findings on data from the International Monetary Fund, from which they estimated total accumulated private wealth which they plotted against the adult population.
To protect their wealth during the 2001 downturn, millionaires shifted assets into fixed income, cash, deposit products and physical assets, particularly property, the report states.
The world's billionaires lost 11 per cent of their fortunes in 2001, but the two holding Irish citizenship - Mr John Dorrance and Sir Anthony O'Reilly - considerably increased their personal wealth, according to Forbes magazine's billionaire rankings in March.
Mr Dorrance's worth rose from $2.1 billion to $2.2 billion and Sir Anthony's from $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion.