NORTHERN Ireland may have been hit hard by the recession - but there has been a 40 per cent rise in the millionaire population since 2010, according to new research.
Barclays has produced a prosperity map of the UK - and found the north is home to around 14,000 millionaires.
As well as the number of millionaires, the study also considered average annual pay, percentage of households that give to charity, business survival rates and exam results.
Northern Ireland topped the table for charitable giving - with 45 per cent of households making donations - and also had the best exam scores.
Barclays said the average gross salary was £21,740 while a typical household spent £485 a week.
Jonathan Dobbin, Northern Ireland director of Barclays Wealth and Investment Management said: “Recovering house prices, albeit from a very low base, in Northern Ireland have created a significant increase in new millionaires, and this number is steadily increasing as we recover from our most recent recession.
"A strong rebound in global stock markets since the nadir in 2008 has also been an important factor, whilst there has also been an increase in the number of M&A transactions, which has, in some cases, created significant personal wealth for shareholders.”
Despite these positive indicators, Northern Ireland also had one of the lowest GDP per capita, average house price and business births-to-deaths ratio.
Chistopher Morrow, communications and policy manager at the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “Northern Ireland had a bigger fallout from the recession than the rest of the UK. The business birth rate across all other UK regions started to recover around 2009/2010. Northern Ireland's recovery has been much slower and the business birth rate here only began to rise again in 2012 suggesting a lack of confidence that new businesses have the right conditions to succeed.
"Northern Ireland's death rate has also been steadily climbing while again across the other UK regions it has started to fall. This is yet another indicator of just how hard hit Northern Ireland's economy has been by the recession vis-a-vis the other UK regions.”
