Number of British millionaires sinks to lowest level since financial crisis
The number of millionaires in Britain has sunk to its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis as rich residents flee the country due to punishingly high levels of tax and the removal of non-dom status, a fresh study has claimed.
Some 442,000 millionaires were listed as residents in Britain in 2025, a seven per cent drop on the previous year, a report from the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) found.
Record levels of taxation, a mooted wealth tax, and the removal of non-dom status in 2025 during Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership have all contributed to the flight of rich Britons in the past two years, the free market think tank said. Falling real asset prices have also squeezed the wealth of some people while a low household savings rate has hampered wealth creation, the group said.
Responding to the report, Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith MP said: “Whatever their personal finances, everyone should care about Britain having fewer millionaires to contribute to the tax pot and creating jobs and businesses here.”
The ASI rejected suggestions that Brexit was behind the decline, noting that the UK had 609,900 millionaires in 2015, rising to 612,300 by 2022.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s refusal to rule out a wealth tax or ‘exit tax’, despite warnings that wealth creators might leave the UK in anticipation of the levy are also fuelling an exodus, the group said.
Mitchell Palmer, an economist at the institute, called on the government to cut or abolish inheritance tax and capital gains tax, and to “focus on making Britain an attractive place for ambitious people.”
A week before entering Downing Street, Burnham said the government “might be having to ask for a little more” when asked about a possible wealth tax.
A spokesperson for Burnham has refused to comment on future tax policy and said they would not comment or write tax policy “off the cuff.”