Asia has more billionaires than the U.S.: report

Asian billionaires outnumbered their U.S. counterparts for the first time in 2016, and the total wealth of Asian billionaires will likely to overtake that of their U.S. peers in the next four years, according to a report issued Thursday.

Billionaire wealth in the world increased by 17 percent to six trillion U.S. dollars in 2016 after falling the year before, said the joint annual billionaires insight report by UBS Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

"On average, a new billionaire was created in Asia every two days, with the total number of Asian billionaires rising by almost a quarter to 637, compared to 563 in the US," the report said.

The combined wealth of Asian billionaires grew by almost a third to two trillion U.S. dollars in 2016, while the wealth of U.S. billionaires stood at 2.8 trillion.

"This year we have seen not only a return to growth for billionaire wealth, but also a significant shift in its geographic dimensions. Dramatic growth in Asian wealth shows it could overtake the U.S. in just four years," said Josef Stadler, head of Global Ultra High Net Worth at UBS.