Fall in number of HNWIs worldwide. - According to the 2009 edition of the World Wealth Report, published by Capgemini, Merrill Lynch and Wealth Management, the number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs are defined as individuals having investable assets of US$1 million or more) has fallen and have fewer assets than at the end of 2008 as a result of the crisis. At the end of 2008, the world's population of HNWIs was down 14.9% from the year before (see Figure 1) to 8.6 million, and their wealth had dropped 19.5% (see Figure 2) to $32.8 trillion. The report illustrates that the declines were unprecedented, and wiped out two robust years of growth in 2006 and 2007. North America is the region with the highest number of HNWIs that have assets worth a total of $2.7 million, followed by Europe (2.6 million) and Asia-Pacific (2.4 million). As a whole, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America only account for 0.9 million HNWIs. The US is still, by far, the country with most HNWIs, followed by Japan and Germany. These three countries accounted for 54.0% of the world's HNWI population. Their assets fell by almost 36%, the United Kingdom (5th) was overtaken by China (6th). France saw a 12.6% fall in the number of HNWIs but kept its sixth place ranking. HNWIs should see better times when the recovery kicks in. The World Wealth Report forecast HNWI financial wealth to grow to $48.5 trillion by 2013. By this time, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to have overtaken North America in terms of growth in HNWI financial wealth. (I.L./transl.rh)