India now has 100 billionaires

The world’s wealthiest individuals are on a roll with billionaires in Asia leading the pack. Driven by additions in China and India, for the first time in history there are now more billionaires in Asia (637) than in the US (563).

Billionaire wealth increased 17% to $6 trillion in 2016, after a decline the previous year, UBS Group AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report on Thursday. But American billionaires still control the most wealth at $2.8 trillion.

Three quarters of the newly minted billionaires are from China and India. China had by far the highest number, adding a net 67 to total 318. India’s billionaire population climbed 16 to hit 100. Asia’s economic expansion saw, on average, a new billionaire created in the region every other day. Should that pace continue, Asia would overtake the US as the world’s largest concentration of wealth in four years.