Asia surpassed Europe in terms of millionaire population for the first time last year, according to the World Wealth Report, released Wednesday by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini.

Asia posted the strongest regional rate of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) population last year, expanding 9.7% to 3.3 million, second only to North America's 3.4 billion, while Europe ranks third at 3.1 million.

HNWIs are defined as those having investable assets of US$1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables in the report.

Globally, HNWI population and wealth growth reached more stable levels in 2010, with the population of HNWIs increasing 8.3% to 10.9 million and HNWI financial wealth growing 9.7% to reach US$42.7 trillion (compared with 17.1% and 18.9% respectively in 2009).

The global HNWI population remained highly concentrated in the U.S., Japan and Germany, which together accounted for 53.0% of the world's HNWIs. The U.S. is still home to the single largest HNW segment in the world, with its 3.1 million HNWIs accounting for 28.6% of the global HNWI population.

The following is a list of the top 10 countries with the largest HNWI population:

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