The richer are getting richer.

A Boston Consulting Group report on global wealth, released to the public on Tuesday afternoon,  found that privately-held wealth grew by 5.3% in 2016, to an estimated $166.5 trillion. Nearly half of that amount is held by the top 1% of households—those worth at least $1 million. BCG noted that by 2021, millionaire households are “expected to hold more than half of total global wealth.”

In March 2017, the Forbes magazine released its annual ranking of the world’s billionaires, which included a record-breaking 2,043 individuals with a combined net worth of $7.67 trillion, an 18% increase over the prior year.  

The BCG study named Asia-Pacific as the world’s fastest-developing region. Private holdings there grew an estimated 9.5% in 2016, to $38.4 trillion. The authors expect that combined, households in Asia-Pacific and Japan will overtake the private wealth in Western Europe (currently $40.5 trillion) by the end of 2017, and the private wealth in North America (currently $55.7 trillion) by 2019.

Latin American private assets rose nearly 9% in 2016, to an estimated $5.4 trillion, and the Middle East and Africa saw an 8.5% jump, to $8.1 trillion. 

Equities comprise 70% of private wealth in North America, while in Japan, Latin America and Asia Pacific cash and deposits are the most popular asset class.

Private wealth is likely to further consolidate in coming years, alongside an international trend of growing income inequality