The figures come from the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) which found, for the second year running, its member organisations in the US and People's Republic of China led the world in the number of people gaining CFP accreditation.
Specifically, the Denver, Colorado-based FPSB, said the number of accredited people in the US and China rose 1,886 and 1,782 respectively.
Its member organisation in Japan was third in terms of the number of CFP professionals it saw certified in 2013, with 628.
Together, the US, China, Japan, Australia and Canada account for 82% of the world's CFP-accredited inidividuals, the FPSB said.
Last year saw the first CFPs ever accredited in Israel, through a partnership with that country's Union of Financial Planners in Israel, which added 61 to the global CFP total.
FPSB chief executive Noel Maye said it was clear that the concept of financial planning and the value of the Certified Financial Planner certification had "taken hold globally".
Since 2002, the FPSB has increased the number of territories offering CFP certification by almost 50%, (to 25 from 17), while the number of CFP professionals more than doubled.
This year the FPSB is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Maye noted, and as it does, it is looking at a number of markets that it sees as holding "potential opportunities for CFP certification growth, including Chile, Italy, Mexico, the Middle East, Peru, Poland, the Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam".
Among some of the other trends highlighted in the FPSB end-of-year statistics:
- The number of new CFP-accredited individuals in Europe grew by 6.2% in 2013, as all of the FPSB's seven member organisations in that region saw growth
- Among the FPSB's 12 member organisations in Asia-Pacific, the number of CFP-accredited individuals increased by more than 3,000, or 5.7%, to total 56,396, representing 37% of what the FPSB calls its "global CFP professional community"
- In the Americas, where Brazil, Canada and the US are home to 57% of the world's CFPs, the number increased by 2.3% last year to 87,504
- FPSB's member organisation in South Africa saw some 178 individuals gain CFP certification, bringing the country's total to 4,513
