It should come as no surprise that the number of millionaires in the country decreased in 2008 due to the market meltdown, and poor economy. However, I was surprised when I read that the number of millionaires actually increased by around 16% in 2009, according to this article on CNN Money. As it explains, the number of households in the U.S. worth $1 million or more grew to 7.8 million in 2009.
The firm's report, "Affluent Market Insights 2010," also found that the number of ultra high-net-worth households, worth $5 million or more jumped 17% to 980,000 in 2009.
"This is largely attributed to the stock market rebound, since other assets including real estate and private businesses have not rebounded as dramatically," said George H. Walper, Jr., president of Spectrem Group.
The report comes one year to the day after the Dow and the S&P 500 closed at 12 year lows in the thick of the financial crisis.
