300,000 New Millionaires Added in U.S., Millionaire Population Close to All-Time High Due to Recent Rising Stocks

300,000 new millionaires had been added because of the recent rise in the stock market, putting America's millionaire population close to its all-time high before the recession.

The Chicago-based Spectrem Group, wealth research firm, said there are currently 8.99 million American households that have a net worth exceeding $1 million. It's not quite high as the all-time record of 9.2 million set in 2006 and up from 8.6 million in 2011.

Spectrem said the stock market's recent rise has been the biggest reason of millionaire creation.

However this news is not exactly good news for middle-class Americans. As Spectrem said the number of households with net worth of $500,000 or more (the affluent) has decreased as the number of new millionaires increased.

Catherine McBreen, president of Spectrem Group's Millionaire Center said the reason has to do with available money. The millionaire households have more money available to use in the stock market and hold more stocks. As they have more benefit from the rising stock market. She adds it's not just matter of money, they tend make better investments, or at least more bullish ones, as they can afford to stay in the market during the recession while less wealthy investors bailed out.

"The reason the affluents haven't recovered as quickly is their stock holdings," McBreen said. "Many of them simply pulled out of the market. They have more cash. But more of the high-net-worth households stayed in."

She said the millionaire households were likely to be older and retired therefore they could afford to keep more money in the market.

"The affluent group may be high earners, but they also might have high expenses like college tuition," she added.