The number of UK millionaires has halved since 2007, new figures out today show.

Data released by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shows the number of millionaires has fallen from 489,000 in 2007 to 242,000 today.

Back in 2006, the CEBR predicted there would be around 760,000 by next year, however. the worst recession since the second world war has taken a huge toll on Britain’s richest.

The halving in the number of millionaires reflects the collapse in the property market, the fall in the values of shares and the 70 per cent drop in city bonuses, a statement declares.

The Sunday Times Rich List published last month estimated the number of UK billionaires has also almost halved, falling from 75 last year to 43 now.

The paper’s annual list also claimed the wealth of those on the Rich List had fallen by 38 per cent in the past year.

The CEBR claims the reason why the drop in the number of millionaires is so large, is due to the fact a great number of people just crept over the millionaire threshold in the period from 2003 to 2007 – when the number of millionaires rose from 230,000 to 489,000.

The rise was mainly caused by the rise in house prices over that period, experts claim.

“Having just crept over the threshold, most of these people have crept back under it again – many perhaps without ever knowing that they had become millionaires for a temporary period,” the CEBR statement declares.

Now that property prices are believed to near bottoming out, it’s expected the number of millionaires will to start to rise again in 2011.