Asia will be the scene for the greatest expansion of the world's middle class, it predicted.

The Swiss bank said with 109 million adults "this year, the Chinese middle class for the first time outnumbered" that in the United States at 92 million.

While the number of middle class worldwide grew last year at a slower pace than the wealthy, it "will continue to expand in emerging economies overall, with a lion's share of that growth to occur in Asia," Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam said in a statement accompanying the bank's annual Global Wealth Report.

"As a result, we will see changing consumption patterns as well as societal changes as, historically, the middle class has acted as an agent of stability and prosperity," he added.