By Nora Redmond

Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS's wealth management arm, said high inflation in the U.K. has contributed to a decline in the average wealth per person.

The average wealth per person has rapidly dropped in the United Kingdom - and it's not looking good compared with other developed markets.

The mean level of wealth in the U.K. has fallen by 23% since 2020, according to the 2026 UBS Global Wealth Report. It falls behind the likes of the Netherlands, down 14%, and France, with a decline of 4.5%.

On the other end, in the United States, it's risen by almost 10%; in South Korea, the average surged by 55%.

The ranking puts the U.K. second-to-last of the 56 markets included in the UBS report - behind Cyprus, which experienced a decline of 25%. That means Britain experienced the largest reduction in personal wealth out of all the developed markets.

It comes as total personal wealth, measured in dollars, increased by nearly 11% last year - over double the rate reached in 2024 and 2023.

Paul Donovan, chief economist at the Swiss multinational bank's wealth-management division, said in a call with reporters on Tuesday that the U.K.'s noticeable reduction in wealth per capita compared with peers can partially be put down to the country experiencing a brief period of higher inflation than in the rest of Europe.

According to data collected by Britain's House of Commons earlier this month, inflation in the U.K. was higher than in the Eurozone - an area consisting of European Union member states that use the euro as their currency - for three years from 2023. Since April, however, it's fallen below.

"Outside of that episode, the dynamics are perfectly normal," Donovan said.

The U.K. has faced a decade of economic and political change since Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the E.U. The country's equities have lost 50% of their assets under management in the past 10 years, according to Barclays, while the E.U. and U.S. have both seen inflows. In the same period, the U.K.'s share of the MSCI All Country World aggregate market cap has dropped to a record low of 3%, per the British bank.

The U.K. has also faced multiple leadership changes, with six different prime ministers since the Brexit referendum. At the same time, the country's economy has faced blows from the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to a cost-of-living crisis, and energy shocks driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the war in Iran.

According to the UBS report, the number of millionaires in the U.K. increased by 1.8% last year, while the U.S. accounted for almost half of the total new millionaires created in 2025, with growth of 1.9%. Donovan highlighted that the issue is not that the U.K. is losing its population of millionaires, but that growth is happening from an already large base in comparison with continental Europe.

Analysts largely expect borrowing costs in Britain to rise if Andy Burnham becomes the country's next prime minister, which is seen as probable. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, who also served in government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, has unveiled plans to reverse privatization and austerity, which Citigroup warns could send the yield on the 10-year gilt BX:TMBMKGB-10Y up to 5.25% or higher.

-Nora Redmond

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