One in 65 Britons is now a millionaire

The UK is home to more than 715,000 millionaires, up from 508,000 in 2010

If you live in London, you’re twice as likely to have millionaire friends than you were five years ago (Demotix/Corbis)

Do you know a millionaire? According to new statistics, you might – especially if you live in London or the South East.

One in 65 adults is now classed as being a millionaire because of booming house prices and gains on the stock market, according to new data from Barclays.

The UK is home to more than 715,000 millionaires, up from 508,000 in 2010.

If you live in London, you’re twice as likely to have millionaire friends than you were five years ago. London is home to 191,000 millionaires, more than the millionaires of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England added together.

It’s all to do with house prices, according to experts. The capital’s house prices are the highest in the country, with an average house price of over £432,000, but lack of affordable housing has led some economists to question the sustainability of this growth.

“London needs to quickly expand its availability of housing in order to maintain and secure its growth,” said Paul Swinney, senior economist Centre for Cities.

Rising house prices have also added to the number of millionaires in the east of England, as London’s richest move out of the capital and the south east. The east of England has 23,000 more millionaires than it did five years ago.

The highest growth rate in millionaires was in the north-east and Wales, which have 50 per cent more millionaires than they did in 2010.

If London’s growth slows, other parts of the country could catch up, analysts at Barclays said. “Regions and cities are starting to close the gap with London in terms of prosperity, with the north-east, for example, seeing business growth rates behind only London,” said Akshaya Bhargava, chief executive of Barclays Wealth and Investment Management.

Barclays also ranked the cities in the UK by prosperity:

Cities ranked by prosperity

1 London

2 Reading

3 Cambridge

4 Birmingham

5 Bristol

6 Leeds

7 Cardiff

8 Manchester

9 Liverpool

10 Newcastle