The recent revelation that there are now more millionaires in the world than ever comes as no surprise, given the nature of globalization that has accompanied the growth of the world’s economy and inflation.

However, as the cliché goes, a million dollars isn’t what it once was.

Specifically, a million dollars in 1996 — when the report first was issued by Merrill Lynch & Co. and consulting firm Capgemini Group — would be worth $1.3 million last year.

The report showed that more than 10 million people around the world claim assets of at least $1 million, and their bank accounts are growing ever faster.

This means the combined wealth of the planet’s millionaires zoomed to $41 trillion last year, marking a jump of 9 percent from the previous year, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini reported June 24.

The average wealth of this elite group is $4 million, which also is the highest it ever has been.

Experts said the figures show that the wealth growth of the world’s richest people is far surpassing that of the world’s population growth, and it is a trend that will continue into the future.

Interestingly, the report showed that the ranks of the wealthy increased most in the developing economies of India, China and Brazil. In India alone, the number of millionaires jumped 23 percent.

As expected, the United States still retains the top spot for fat-cats, where one in every three millionaires lives.

The laggards include — not surprisingly — Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, which combined account for just 10 percent of the world’s millionaires.

With the spurt in millionaires, the gain for 2007 was 600,000 more members of the exclusive club than in 2006 — a six-percent increase.

While 10 million millionaires may sound like a big number, it still ranks as less than one-fifth of 1 percent of the world’s population.
Meanwhile, a separate ranking of those with at least $30 million in assets grew by 9 percent from the previous year and their wealth jumped by nearly 15 percent. There were 103,000 such super-wealthy people in the world last year.

“It’s nice to be rich,” a separate editorial in The New York Times last Saturday aptly trumpteted.

And to that sentiment we would add, “It’s nice to be nice,” and we hope the ever-growing army of millionaires will use a generous portion of their riches to help make the world a better place.