Is Singapore the next billionaires' playground?

Singapore has the fifth largest number of billionaires in Asia, ahead of countries such as Taiwan and Indonesia.

This is according to the inaugural Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2013, a comprehensive study on global billionaire population.

With total of 27 billionaires possessing a net worth of US$64 billion (S$79.5 billion), Singapore also came in 18^th place for the most number of billionaires on a global scale.

The nation came in sixth place in the top 20 billionaire cities list, which ranked cities on how attractive they were for billionaires, based on where their primary businesses were located.

According to the report, there were 18 new billionaires created in Asia since July 2012, more than two times that in North America.

In fact, Asia contributed the largest number of new billionaires to the list, with five countries in the top 10 holding the highest percentage of self-made billionaires.

Despite this, US still reigns as the top billionaire capital in the world, with a billionaire population of 515, more than three times the numbers in China, which was ranked second globally.

Since the financial crisis in 2009, there has been a 60% increase in the world's billionaire population, rising to a total of 2,170 this year.

The combined net worth of billionaires came to a total of US$6.5 trillion (S$8 trillion) this year, higher than the GDP of every country except US and China.