How Many Billionaires Are in the UK?
The UK had 156 billionaires in 2025, down from 165 in 2024 — the sharpest fall in the Sunday Times Rich List's 37-year history.
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Explore CloudLearn Courses →The UK had 156 billionaires in 2025, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
That was down from 165 in 2024 — a fall of nine.
The decline was the sharpest in the Rich List's 37-year history.
About These Statistics
The UK had 156 billionaires in 2025, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, down from 165 the year before. The fall of nine was the sharpest annual decline in the list's 37-year history, ending a long run in which the count had tended to climb.
Several factors have been put forward to explain the drop, and it is best understood as a combination rather than a single cause. The decline has been widely linked to the government's reform of the non-dom tax regime, which changed how long-term UK residents with overseas ties are taxed. Movements in asset prices — the share and property values on which many fortunes rest — and the relocation of some wealthy residents abroad have also been cited. These are presented here as contributing factors, not settled conclusions.
The Sunday Times Rich List is compiled each year from identifiable assets such as company stakes, property and other published holdings. Because it can only measure wealth that can be traced, it cannot capture hidden or offshore holdings, and it is best read as a careful estimate rather than an exact census of who holds a billion pounds or more.
It is worth keeping the scale in perspective. Billionaires are distinct from millionaires: a billionaire has at least £1 billion, a thousand times a millionaire's £1 million. The UK is home to more than 2 million dollar-millionaires but only 156 billionaires, so billionaires make up a tiny fraction even of the wealthy.
Because the total is so small, the billionaire count can be volatile from year to year. A handful of people crossing the threshold in either direction, or a swing in asset values, can move the figure noticeably. A single annual change should therefore be read as a snapshot rather than a firm long-term trend.
These figures come from the Sunday Times Rich List, a commercial publication, rather than official UK government data. There is no official government count of billionaires, so the Rich List is the most widely cited source for this measure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on the Sunday Times Rich List 2025
How many billionaires are there in the UK?
The UK had 156 billionaires in 2025 according to the Sunday Times Rich List, down from 165 in 2024.
Why did the number of UK billionaires fall?
The fall from 165 to 156 was the sharpest in the Rich List's 37-year history. It has been widely linked to the government's reform of the non-dom tax regime, alongside movements in asset prices and some wealthy residents relocating abroad.
What is the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire?
A billionaire has at least £1 billion — a thousand times a millionaire's £1 million. The UK has more than 2 million dollar-millionaires but only 156 billionaires, so billionaires are a tiny fraction of the wealthy.
Is the UK billionaire count reliable?
The Sunday Times Rich List is a respected annual estimate based on identifiable assets such as company stakes, property and published holdings. It cannot capture hidden or offshore wealth, so it is best read as a careful estimate rather than an exact census.
UK Billionaires by Year (Sunday Times Rich List)
| Year | Billionaires |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 165 |
| 2025 | 156 |
Source: Sunday Times Rich List