Paul McCartney Joins UK's 'Billion-Pound Rich List'... First Musician to Enter

Announcement by The Sunday Times UK

Paul McCartney left a video message for Korean fans ahead of his visit to Korea. Photo by Hyundai Card YouTube video capture

Paul McCartney (81) of The Beatles has become the first musician to be listed among the UK's 'billion-pound asset holders.' One billion pounds is equivalent to over 1.7 trillion Korean won.

According to the '2024 Rich List' announced on the 17th (local time) by The Times Sunday edition, The Sunday Times, Paul and Nancy McCartney recorded a net worth of one billion pounds, an increase of 50 million pounds (about 86 billion won) from the previous year.

The Sunday Times has been estimating assets such as real estate, stocks, and artworks annually since 1989 and publishes a list of wealthy individuals in the UK. Families are counted together.

McCartney is a former member of The Beatles. Although half a century has passed since their breakup, the members of The Beatles still earn millions of pounds annually. In addition, McCartney has steadily accumulated wealth in his old age through his band Wings, solo copyrights, and ongoing active performances.

McCartney is the first musician to enter the billion-pound list in the UK, ranking 165th among the top 350 wealthiest individuals. The next wealthiest musicians are Elton John (470 million pounds, 291st) and Mick Jagger (415 million pounds, 315th).

This year, the number of billion-pound asset holders was counted at 165, six fewer than last year and 12 fewer than the record high in 2022.

The richest person for the third consecutive year is Indian-born Gopi Hinduja and his family, with a net worth of 37.2 billion pounds (about 63.9 trillion won). The Hinduja Group operates businesses worldwide in various fields including oil, real estate, finance, and information technology (IT).

The Sunday Times explained that Indian-born asset holders have held the position of the UK's richest person for more than half of this century, totaling over 12 years. Second place is Leonard Blavatnik, a media investment businessman from a Russian Jewish family (29.25 billion pounds), and third place is the real estate businessman family David and Simon Reuben (25 billion pounds). The wealthiest individual whose net worth decreased the most was Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the chemical company INEOS, whose net worth dropped by 6.1 billion pounds (about 10.5 trillion won), causing his rank to fall from second to fourth.