Birmingham ranked as fourth most prosperous city in UK

The number of millionaires in the UK has increased by 41% over the past five years thanks to booming house prices and stock market gains, according to new figures.

The Barclays UK Prosperity Map shows there are now 715,000 millionaires living in Britain compared with 508,000 in 2010. Interestingly, nearly half, or 48%, of all new millionaires since 2010 live outside London and the South East.

Its prosperity index found that Reading, Cambridge and Birmingham are the most affluent cities outside of London.

Surging property prices and large returns in equity markets in recent years have combined with higher wages and employment rates to create more millionaires as the UK economy gets back on track.

The research shows that every UK region is now more affluent than it was five years ago, with measures including household wealth, gross domestic product, exam results, charitable donations and entrepreneurship taken intoaccount.

Growing numbers of entrepreneurs in the UK is also seen as another factor in increasing wealth, with Cambridge ranking third as it has emerged as a start-up hub.

The North East and Newcastle fall low on the prosperity index.

Cities ranked according to the prosperity index are:

• London

• Reading

• Cambridge

• Birmingham

• Bristol

• Leeds

• Cardiff

• Manchester

• Liverpool

• Newcastle