After a very turbulent couple of months, the UK now has a new prime minister - Rishi Sunak. And while there are a multitude of questions facing the new PM, many of them also concern his wealth. Namely - how much time would it take an average Brit to reach his net worth?
Taking into account his and his wife’s combined net worth of £730 million, an analysis done by BanklessTimes.com shows it would take an astounding 22,121 years to reach this number.
So, let's look at the story behind these numbers, and how they fare when standing next to data about the average Brit.
Compared to the Average Brit
According to the newest data from ONS, in 2022 the average annual salary of a UK citizen is £33,000 and the average total net worth of UK households is £300,000.
So, what do these numbers tell us?
The mean UK household net worth is 0.041% of the wealth Rishi Sunak currently has. So, if an average Brit were to save literally every penny he or she makes a year (foregoing literally all expenses and bills), it would take 22,121 years to reach his current wealth.
If Rishi Sunak, currently 42, joined the workforce at 18, and began with a net worth of zero, he would have 24 years to reach 730 million pounds. He would then need to earn £30,416,666 a year in order to reach his current level.
It boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Putting Things Into Perspective
Let's put this 22,121-year timeframe into a bit of perspective. During the time an average Brit would reach this level of wealth, they could see human civilization begin and then reach our present roughly four times.
Or, going back in time 22,121 years means you're halfway there to seeing the first European humans walk the earth.
If you were to convert the PM’s £730 million into US dollars (according to the currency rate at the time of writing this article), you would reach roughly $846 million. This money, when stacked up in one-dollar bills, would get you a tower measuring 94 kilometers, bringing you very close to the troposphere.
Compared to Others
But how about we compare the PM’s net worth to others? Since Rishi Sunak is very close to being a billionaire, let's look at Bezos. The Prime Minister’s wealth makes up 0.67% of Bezos’s $126 billion.
Next, let's make a comparison with the richest man in the world. Elon Musk’s $223.8 billion trumps the PM's $846 million, the latter’s net worth being 0.376% of that of Musk’s. And the average Brit has a net worth of 0.041% of what Rishi Sunak has.
In other words, the PM has 300 times less money than the richest man in the world, and roughly 2,500 times more money than the average British citizen.
Rich or not, it will be interesting to see how the new Prime Minister will deal with the challenges facing the country. All that should matter is the work he does, not his background or financial status.
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