UK industrial powerhouse 200mi from London with more billionaires than Berlin

One of Europe’s most prominent capitals is Berlin, a city with a fascinating and intriguing history. Once a symbol of a divided country, the city was reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It soon regained its status as the capital city of a newly confident Germany, emerging once and for all from the shadows of its wartime past. Berlin is not only the political centre of the country, but is also Germany’s largest industrial town and a major centre of trade and technological development. Many of the country’s largest and most important companies maintain facilities in the city.

Its economic prowess is reflected in the number of millionaires and billionaires living in the city.

Germany’s capital boasts a whopping 26,500 millionaires, 47 centi-millionaires and a respectful five billionaires – according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2024.

The wealth is calculated in US dollars as opposed to pound sterling.

However, a UK city based in the North West trumps the number of billionaires in Berlin.

Manchester became an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, and was a leading centre for Britain’s textile industry for many years.

Today, it represents the largest city region economy outside London, with a gross value added (GVA) of £78.7 billion.

The city is at the heart of the UK’s largest manufacturing and advanced engineering cluster – the Northern Powerhouse.

It is also home to creative and media businesses, has a thriving digital and technology sector, as well as being a centre for financial and business services.

No surprises then, that Manchester is home to seven billionaires, along with 23,300 millionaires and 67 centi-millionaires.

The wealthiest of these are Zuber and Mohsin Issa, according to a rich list compiled by insidermedia.com

From humble beginnings on a single £150,000 site in Bury, Mohsin and his brother Zuber have built a global network of more than 5,500 petrol stations through their Euro Garages (EG) Group.

At the time of the rich list compilation, the brothers had a reported combined wealth of £2.725 billion.