The number of people who technically qualify as millionaires in the North has jumped by 40 per cent in the last 15 years to hit 14,000 according to a new prosperity map published in the UK.

Research carried out by Barclays suggests that the property market is one of the drivers behind the emergence of a new generation of millionaires in the North.

The first Barclays UK Prosperity Map shows that Northern Ireland is the sixth most affluent part of the UK and has more millionaires than Wales or the North East of England.

Barclays used a number factors from numbers of local millionaires to average annual pay and the percentage of households giving to charity and also business survival rates to create the map.

The latest research suggests that as well as being home to an increasing number of millionaires, the North also has some of the biggest charity supporters in the UK with nearly half (45 pr cent) of all households giving to good causes.

But Barclays research also shows that Northern Ireland also has one of the lowest GDP per capita, average house price and business births-to-deaths ratio.