Number of Millionaire Households Continues to Grow

The number of Millionaire households rose for the third straight year to 8.2 million in 2011, but remains below the 9.2 million peak in 2007,  according to the 2012 Affluent Market Insights released today by Spectrem Group.

Stock market gains buoyed all Affluent Market segments to three-year highs, but the market as a whole has yet to recover to pre-recession levels. Households with $100,000 or more in net worth rose from 36.2 million in 2010 to 36.7 million in 2011. (Spectrem Group defines net worth as all assets not including primary residence.)

Households with a net worth of $500,000 or more rose to 13.8 million in 2011, while those with a net worth of $5 million or more rose to 1.078 million. The wealthiest households – those with a net worth of $25 million or more – grew to 107,000 in 2011.

Affluent investor confidence is also on the rebound from year lows, but is down for the year ending February, according to the Spectrem Investor Confidence Indices.