UK statistics
How Many UK Billionaires 2026: Sunday Times Rich List
The 2026 Sunday Times Rich List (online 15 May 2026, in print 17 May) counted 157 UK billionaires. The Equality Trust calculates that they hold just under £670 billion, more than 22p in every pound of UK GDP. The 350 people and families on the list share £784 billion, up 1.4% on the year.
Headline numbers
- UK billionaires (2026 Rich List)
- 157 individuals + families with £1bn+
- Combined billionaire wealth
- £670bn just under, 22% of GDP (Equality Trust)
- Top 350 combined wealth
- £784bn +1.4% on 2025
The detail
The 2026 Sunday Times Rich List counted 157 UK billionaires - individuals or families with net worth of £1 billion or more. It was published online on 15 May 2026 and as a print supplement in The Sunday Times on 17 May 2026. The list is compiled by The Sunday Times, not by a statistics body, so it is not an official statistic.
The Equality Trust, using the list, calculates that the 157 billionaires hold just under £670 billion, "more than 22p in every pound" of UK GDP. It compares that with the first list in 1989, when 15 billionaires held £27 billion, about 4p in every pound of GDP (as reported by the Guardian, 15 May 2026).
The full list of the 350 wealthiest individuals and families shares £784 billion. The list's editor, Robert Watts, describes that as a 1.4% rise on the previous year and equivalent to a quarter of UK GDP. A 1.4% rise is below CPI inflation, which ONS put at 2.8% in the 12 months to April 2026, so the combined wealth of the top 350 fell slightly in real terms.
The 2026 list itself reports "an exodus of wealthy individuals leaving the UK in the wake of tax changes unveiled by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor". Because the list counts residents only, departures lower the totals as well as any change in asset values.
Sources
- The Guardian - Wealth of Britain's 157 billionaires now equal to 22% of country's GDP (15 May 2026) (retrieved 2026-09-30)
- Sunday Times Rich List 2026 - Wikipedia summary (quotes the list's editor) (retrieved 2026-09-30)
- The Times - The Sunday Times Rich List 2026 revealed (subscription) (retrieved 2026-09-30)
- ONS - CPI annual rate (D7G7) (retrieved 2026-09-30)
- Our methodology & full source list →
Related statistics
- Top 1%
Being in the UK's top 1% of income earners requires total pre-tax income of roughly £207,000 per year (HMRC Personal Incomes Statistics, tax year 2023/24 - the most recent complete dataset).
- What Counts as Rich
There's no official "rich" threshold, but three proxies are commonly used: the top 1% of UK taxpayers by income (£207,000 or more, HMRC, 2023-24), the additional-rate tax band (above £125,140), or the wealthiest 10% of households in Great Britain (£1,200,500 or more, ONS).
- UK Tax Burden
Effective combined tax (Income Tax + employee NI) rises from 16.3% on a £30,000 salary to 39.1% on £150,000 in 2026/27 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) - not the headline marginal rate but the blended total-tax share.
- ISA millionaires
HMRC data released to Rathbones under a Freedom of Information request show 5,070 people held ISAs worth £1 million or more at the start of the 2023/24 tax year. Rathbones projects that this could have risen to around 17,600 by April 2026, assuming 8% annual returns and full use of the annual ISA allowance.