China currently has more than one million millionaires on the country's rapid economic growth, rising savings and a stronger currency, with its number of millionaire households surging by 31 percent year-on-year to 1.11 million in 2010, according to a recent survey carried by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

China ranked the third in terms of number of millionaire households, following the United States' 5.22 million and Japan's 1.53 million, said BCG's annual Global Wealth Report. Hong Kong had the 10th most millionaire households in the world, with 200,000, as well as 223 households worth more than US$100 million.

However, as the survey did not consider privately held businesses and properties, the result has underestimated the true wealth on Chinese mainland.

"Plus, the survey didn't include new types of assets that Chinese rich people have started to invest recently, including works of art, fine wines and yachts, " said Tjun Tang, a partner at BCG Hong Kong and one of the report's authors.

The report also found that the world wealth households continue to expand in 2010, with just 0.9 percent of all households possessing 39 percent of the global wealth, up from 37 percent in 2009.

Wealth in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan grew the fastest last year, up 17.1 percent. Wealth in this region is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.4 percent from 2010 to 2015, raising its share of global wealth from 18 percent to 23 percent.

The number of millionaire households globally increased to about 12.5 million, BCG said in the report.

This year, the report also published, for the first time, figures on countries with the highest number of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) households, defined as those with more than US$100 million in assets under management. The Chinese mainland ranks eighth globally with a total of 393 UHNW households, according to the survey.