A new study finds there are more millionaires in Asia than in Europe for the first time.

The study released Thursday says there are now 3.3 million people in Asia with investable assets — not counting their primary homes — of $1 million or more. That exceeds the 3.1 million people in Europe and is fast approaching the North American total of 3.4 million of the super-rich.

The annual study was performed by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and the consulting firm Capgemini, which advise their clients on how to market products to so-called high net worth individuals.

The survey found six of the 10 economies with the fastest rising number of millionaires are in Asia. Hong Kong and Vietnam each registered a 33 percent increase since last year, while India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore also made large gains.

On a country-by-country basis, the United States, Japan and Germany still have the most millionaires, accounting for more than half the world's total among them. China placed fourth with 535,000 millionaires.

The report says that collectively, Asia's millionaires have assets of almost $11 trillion. The total net worth of all the world's millionaire's is more than $42 trillion, the most ever.