London, Jun 23 (IANS): Buoyed by strong stock markets, the net wealth of Asian millionaires is now more than that of their European counterparts for the first time while the number of millionaires in India has increased by 50 percent in 2009, according to a new survey by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Capgemini.

In India, the number of millionaires has risen more than 50 percent to 126,756 in 2009. China, with 477,000 millionaires is fourth in the list of countries with maximum millionaires, after the US, Japan and Germany.

The survey has found that there were three million millionaires in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region last year. The survey claims that the wealth held in Asia is around $9,700 billion, compared to $9,500 billion in Europe.

Nick Tucker, head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management's operations for the UK and Ireland, told Financial Times: "It's not a bubble. Asia has caught up with Europe in terms of its high-net worth population and their wealth."

The survey defines millionaires as people with net financial wealth of more than $1 million, excluding their primary residence. The wealth of the millionaires in both regions increased last year after the stock markets recovered from the slump of the previous year.

According to the survey, North America continues to lead the millionaires list who last year numbered 3.1 million with $10,700 billion of worth. The number of British millionaires has gone up by 24 per cent from 2008 to 448,100.