How many Premium Bonds millionaires have been made in YOUR area? More have won £1m in Surrey than Scotland!
This week marks 70 years since Premium Bonds went on sale, creating what would become one of the most recognised financial products ever launched.
Chancellor Harold Macmillan revealed the plan in his Budget on April 17, 1956. He said: 'I have something completely new for the saver in Great Britain; that is, a Premium Bond.
'Let me say at once that this is not a pool or a lottery, where you spend your money.
'The investor in the bond which I propose is saving his money. He will get it back when he wants it.
'But as long as he holds it saved, his reward, instead of interest, is the chance of winning a tax-free prize.'
On the day they first went on sale, £5million worth were sold. By the end of the year? £54million.
On June 1, 1957, ERNIE – the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment – was started live on radio and TV by Postmaster General, Ernest Marples, running the first draw featuring 49 million Premium Bonds.
By comparison, in this month's prize draw, there were more than 138 billion eligible £1 Bonds.
Big launch: NS&I captured the imagination of the British public and sales on day one in 1956 were huge
When it first launched, the maximum Premium Bonds holding was £500 per person; it is now £50,000.
National Savings and Investments has since dished out 871.5 million prizes, worth £43.8billion since 1957 – and since 1994, there has been a top tier prize of £1million.
The original jackpot prize was £1,000. Using the This is Money inflation calculator, that is roughly £34,000 today.
The number of £1million prizes was ramped up to two between August 2005 and April 2009, before falling back to one, and then relaunched with two prizes in August 2014.
In that 32-year period, NS&I has created 590 millionaires – and we have dived into the data to find out where the top prizes have been won…
How 11 winners have had less than £1,000
Our analysis shows there have been 11 million-pound winners with total holdings under £1,000.
Meanwhile, 92 winners have taken a £1million top prize with a £50,000 maximum holding, introduced in June 2015, with 276 millionaires created in that time.
That means roughly one in three winners have had the maximum holding.
The longest wait for a £1million win is 16,587 days, or 553 months. That win is also unique as the lowest ever holding to win a prize, £17, and the only £1million winner from a bond bought in the 1950s.
It was purchased in February 1959 and the holder was from the London Borough of Newham.
The shortest time for a win is two holders who had to wait just 59 days from purchase to £1million.
No bond purchased in the 1960s has ever won a £1million prize; three from the 1970s have; 20 from the 1980s and 116 from the 1990s.
The first ever £1million winner was in Surrey in 1994. They had £10,000 in bonds and bought the winning number 10 months before.
At the time, the maximum that could be held in Premium Bonds was £20,000.
Which areas have won £1million most on Premium Bonds?
The South East has had 110 millionaires made in the region, according to our analysis of NS&I data.
This is followed by the South West at 81, the East with 71 and London with 69.
The North West has had 63 millionaires created, West Midlands 41, East Midlands 37, Yorkshire and Humberside 36 and 20 in the North East.
Meanwhile, 31 millionaires have been in Scotland, 19 in Wales and six apiece in Northern Ireland and a category dubbed overseas, of which the biggest number of holders are found in Australia, Canada and Jersey, which NS&I classes as overseas.
| Region | Winners |
|---|---|
| East | 71 |
| East Midlands | 37 |
| Overseas | 6 |
| London | 69 |
| North East | 20 |
| North West | 63 |
| Northern Ireland | 6 |
| Scotland | 28 |
| South East | 110 |
| South West | 81 |
| Wales | 19 |
| West Midlands | 41 |
| Western Isles | 3 |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | 36 |
More specifically, Surrey comes out on top with 30 millionaires made – more than Scotland or Wales.
Kent has had 25 millionaires made and Essex 23. Devon has bragging rights over Cornwall, with 18 millionaires made there versus six in Cornwall.
Other areas with double-digit winners include Hertfordshire with 16; Lancashire and West Sussex with 14; Bristol and Outer London with 13; Cumbria, Dorset and Suffolk with 12; Nottingham with 11; and Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire and Wiltshire with ten.
| Location | Number of £1m winners |
|---|---|
| Aberdeen | 1 |
| Aberdeenshire | 2 |
| Avon | 1 |
| Barnet | 3 |
| Bedfordshire | 4 |
| Berkshire | 5 |
| Birmingham | 5 |
| Brighton & Hove | 1 |
| Bristol | 13 |
| Buckinghamshire | 6 |
| Cambridge | 1 |
| Cambridgeshire | 3 |
| Cardiff | 3 |
| Carmarthenshire | 1 |
| Central Bedfordshire | 2 |
| Cheshire | 7 |
| Cheshire East | 2 |
| Cheshire West and Chester | 2 |
| City of Westminster | 1 |
| Cleveland | 3 |
| Clwyd | 2 |
| Co Armagh | 1 |
| Cornwall | 6 |
| County Antrim | 3 |
| County Down | 2 |
| County Durham | 5 |
| Coventry | 1 |
| Croydon | 2 |
| Cumbria | 12 |
| Derbyshire | 6 |
| Devon | 18 |
| Dorset | 12 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 1 |
| Durham | 1 |
| Dyfed | 1 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 2 |
| East Sussex | 8 |
| Edinburgh | 4 |
| Essex | 23 |
| Fife | 1 |
| Glasgow | 5 |
| Gloucestershire | 9 |
| Grampian | 1 |
| Greater Manchester | 4 |
| Gwent | 2 |
| Hampshire & Isle of Wight | 8 |
| Hampshire | 7 |
| Harrow | 1 |
| Hereford and Worcester | 4 |
| Hertfordshire | 16 |
| Highlands and Islands | 3 |
| Humberside | 3 |
| Herefordshire | 1 |
| Inner London | 7 |
| Kendal | 1 |
| Kent | 25 |
| Kirklees | 3 |
| Lanarkshire | 1 |
| Lancashire | 14 |
| London Borough of Barnet | 2 |
| LB of Bexley | 1 |
| LB of Brent | 2 |
| LB of Bromley | 2 |
| LB of Camden | 4 |
| LB of Croydon | 1 |
| LB of Ealing | 1 |
| LB of Hammersmith & Fulham | 1 |
| LB of Haringey | 1 |
| LB of Havering | 1 |
| LB of Hillingdon | 2 |
| LB of Hounslow | 1 |
| LB of Islington | 1 |
| LB of Kingston upon Thames | 1 |
| LB of Lambeth | 2 |
| LB of Lewisham | 1 |
| LB of Merton | 1 |
| LB of Newham | 1 |
| LB of Redbridge | 1 |
| LB of Richmond | 4 |
| LB of Tower Hamlets | 1 |
| LB of Waltham Forest | 1 |
| Leeds | 5 |
| Leicester | 3 |
| Leicestershire | 6 |
| Lincolnshire | 5 |
| Liverpool | 5 |
| London | 6 |
| Lothian | 3 |
| Manchester | 6 |
| Merseyside | 2 |
| Mid Scotland and Fife | 1 |
| Norfolk | 3 |
| North East Scotland | 1 |
| North Humberside | 1 |
| North Yorkshire | 3 |
| Northants | 2 |
| Northumberland | 1 |
| Norwich | 7 |
| Nottingham | 11 |
| Nottinghamshire | 4 |
| Outer London | 13 |
| Overseas | 6 |
| Oxfordshire | 2 |
| Powys | 1 |
| Preston | 1 |
| Reading | 2 |
| Scotland | 1 |
| Sefton | 3 |
| Sheffield | 4 |
| Shropshire | 5 |
| Somerset | 9 |
| South Gloucestershire | 3 |
| South Scotland | 1 |
| South West Wales | 3 |
| South Yorkshire | 3 |
| Southampton | 2 |
| Staffordshire | 5 |
| Stockport | 2 |
| Stoke On Trent | 2 |
| Strathclyde | 1 |
| Suffolk | 12 |
| Surrey | 30 |
| Swansea | 2 |
| Tayside | 1 |
| Tyne and Wear | 10 |
| Wales | 4 |
| Wandsworth | 3 |
| Warwickshire | 10 |
| West Midlands | 5 |
| West Scotland | 3 |
| West Sussex | 14 |
| West Yorkshire | 6 |
| Wiltshire | 10 |
| Wirral | 2 |
| Wolverhampton | 1 |
| Worcestershire | 2 |
| York | 2 |
| Yorkshire | 4 |
With Premium Bonds, every customer is assigned to a town based on the Royal Mail Postcode Address File.
If a winner's town does not have at least 100,000 bondholders, NS&I moves up through the following levels until they find a boundary that meets the 100,000-person limit.
• Level 1: Royal Mail PAF Town (eg Blackpool, Norwich)
• Level 2: County or Local Authority (eg Lancashire, Hertfordshire)
• Level 3: Government Standard Region (eg North West, West Midlands)
• Level 4: Country (eg England, Scotland, Wales)
Jackpot winners since January 2023
Three areas have had six £1million winners apiece since January 2023. These are Hampshire including the Isle of Wight, London and Norfolk.
Hampshire has a total of 825,696 Premium Bonds holders, London more than 2.5million but Norfolk has just 367,738.
Meanwhile, Merseyside has had five millionaires and Nottinghamshire, Cumbria and Hertfordshire have had four.
Notably, there hasn't been a £1million winner in Wales in this timeframe despite more than 1.1million holders.
Lancashire with 515,905 Premium Bonds holders also hasn't seen a millionaire made since January 2023.
Leicestershire (315,376 holders) and Tyne and Wear (304,114) are other noticeable absentees.
The two £1million prizes for this month were won by someone in Outer London and someone in Shropshire.
The Outer London winner had £30,000, with the winning bond bought in December 2010.
The Shropshire winner had £50,000, and the winning bond was bought in November 2025. You can check November 2026 prizes below:
Premium Bonds Winners
| Prize | Area | Value of bond |
| £1,000,000 | Outer London | £5,000 |
| £1,000,000 | Shropshire | £48,990 |
| £100,000 | London | £10,000 |
| £100,000 | Edinburgh | £20,000 |
| £100,000 | Devon | £50,000 |
| £100,000 | Surrey | £20,000 |
| £100,000 | Cheshire West And Chester | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Wiltshire | £5,000 |
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