The number of wealthy people living in the UK is set to break through the one million barrier in the next four years.
Market analyst Datamonitor predicts there will be more than a million high-net-worth individuals living in the country by the end of 2008.
The group said the number of people with liquid assets, excluding property, worth more than £200,000 grew by more than 100,000 in 2003 to 750,000, with the number of people with assets worth between £1 million and £1.5 million soaring by almost a third.
At the same time it said rich people's combined wealth rose by 22 per cent during the year to reach £436.6 billion, up from £358.5 billion a year earlier.
The research also showed there were more wealthy women than men in the country, with almost 393,000 women holding more than £200,000 in cash, shares and bonds, compared with 355,000 men.
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