The latest Bain & Company report on worldwide luxury spending lists China and emerging markets as prime movers.

Emerging markets are taking up a substantial percentage of the world's luxury consumer market base and China is leading the way, according to a report by Bain & Company released in January 2014.

In the document titled "Lens on the Worlwide Luxury Consumer," produced in collaboration with Redburn and Millward Brown, the number of luxury consumers around the globe increased from about 90 million in 1995 to 330 million in 2013. This number is expected to move even closer to 400 million by 2020. 

While majority of these consumers were from North America and Western Europe, the role of emerging markets is particularly notable as they were represented by 130 million shoppers in 2013, most of whom came from China. The report recorded around 50 million luxury consumers in China in the year, 35 million from Japan, while another 25 million came from "other Asian countries." Another 20 million were from Latin America; signifying that emerging markets are catching up with developed countries when it comes to spending power.

Of the Chinese luxury spenders, the ones living in the urban areas of Beijing and Shanghai were the biggest shoppers who described as "luxury enthusiastic," or those who valued brands and logos, were insensitive to price, driven by advertising influence and with a preference to shop abroad. The Chinese were also the "most generous" nationality when it comes to luxury gifting.