India has 61,000 millionaires, while the United States has a whopping 2.27 million, according to a study.

One in every 125 Americans is a millionaire -- reflecting a growth rate not seen since the late 1990s at the peak of the stock market bubble, said 2004 World Wealth Report by brokerage firm Merrill Lynch & Co and consultancy Capgemini Group.

China reported 236,000 high-net-worth individuals (those with at least $1 million in financial or liquid assets), it said.

The number of millionaires in the US was up 14 per cent since 2002, and the US and Canada together added more new millionaires last year than Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East combined.

The study found that in the US and Canada, the number of ultra-rich -- those with investment assets of more than $30 million -- has reached 30,000.

Wealthy individuals in most of the world enjoyed a strong 2003, ending two years in the doldrums, the study found.

In the US, rising stock markets and wealth-friendly tax cuts combined to create strong returns for the wealthy.

Globally, wealthy investors, after staying away from stocks in 2001 and 2002, re-entered the market aggressively in 2003, expanding their exposure to 35 per cent of their holdings from 20 per cent.