The United States lost 129,000 millionaires in 2011 largely due to last year's stock-market losses, according to The Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth study.
The number of Americans with investible assets fell to 5,134,000 from 5,263,000, while total private wealth in North America fell by 0.9 percent to $38 trillion, the study finds, as reported by CNBC.
The ultra-rich took it hard across the chin.
Editor's Note: How You Lost $85,000 During the Last Decade. See the Numbers.
North American households with investible assets of more than $100 million saw their wealth decline 2.4 percent, CNBC adds.
Overseas the picture was a little brighter.
While the United States trimmed its list of millionaires, the rest of the world added 175,000 millionaires, with the global number now at 12.6 million millionaire households, CNBC adds.
Stocks have taken wild swings over the past year, stemming from the U.S. debt ceiling debacle in 2011 through the escalating European debt crisis of 2012, which as Greece and now the larger Spain firmly locked in its cross hairs.
Stocks can even pummel the world's richest.
Ask Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who saw his net worth drop after the famed social network went public in May.
After the stock dropped on concerns monetizing the company's 900 million users may be tough, Zuckerberg's net worth has dropped to $15.1 billion today from an initial $19.4 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile U.S. stock markets continue to roil amid uncertainty that Greece or Spain will come under increasing financial strain and possibly exit the eurozone, which could send shockwaves across global economies.
Americans, a Gallup poll shows, are taking it in stride.
Forty-nine percent of Americans say they follow the news on the European financial crisis at least somewhat closely, with only 16 percent who say very closely, Gallup reports.
"The financial troubles in Europe may seem remote to many Americans. This is understandable, given that what happens with European economies does not have an obvious impact on Americans' day-to-day lives," Gallup reports.
"But the European financial crisis has been linked to some of the recent volatility in the U.S. stock market and, if it persists, it has the potential to affect the U.S. economy in more obvious ways, such as through decreased U.S. exports, less European investment in the United States, and decreased lending by U.S. banks domestically due to concern about possible future effects of the European situation."
Editor's Note: How You Lost $85,000 During the Last Decade. See the Numbers.
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