Who wants to be a millionaire?

It would seem Australia is set to live up to its global status as the “lucky country”, with the number of millionaire households expected to almost double over the next decade.

While $1 million might still seem like a lot of money to many people who are struggling with rising household debt, and it would definitely go a long way in developing countries where you can buy a whole lot more for a whole lot less, in reality a cool million just isn’t worth as much as it used to be.

That being said, the Deloitte Center for Financial Services along with Oxford Economics studied total household wealth, including the value of a primary residence and business equity, and here are the 2011 and projected 2020 rankings of countries with the most millionaire households:

And there’s Australia coming in at number 10 by 2020, with an expected 1.62 million households boasting millionaire status across the nation. This is more than double today’s number of millionaire households (698,000.)

Now that’s not bad when you consider that our population is significantly smaller than those of all other countries that make up the top 10.

A large part of this new wealth in Australia will come from property. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Australia’s richest households are expanding their wealth three times faster than the poorest groups, and the statistics clearly reveal that wealth was more concentrated in households that own property.

Interestingly, while some countries will continue to dominate the top of the millionaire household rankings, the rising cost of living will have a direct impact on how much those millions of dollars are capable of buying. For instance, $1 million will buy a lot less in the US than it will in China, where it will be worth more like $1.8 million comparatively speaking, given its higher purchasing power.

Yes, I know the world is in economic turmoil, and there’s no doubt that we’re in for some interesting times ahead.

However if the next 10 years is anything like the last 10 years we’ll have another property boom as well as a property slump. We’ll have periods of low interest rates and times when interest rates rise. We’ll probably have a change of government plus a gaggle of unforeseen hurdles put in our way to test our resolve.

But those investors who keep their eyes on the big picture and invest in well-located properties are likely to do well and join the ranks of those new Australian property multi-millionaires.

Michael Yardney is the director of Metropole Property Investment Strategists , a best-selling author and one of Australia’s leading experts in wealth creation through property. He also writes the Property Investment Update blog.