Sunday Times Rich List
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989. The editorial decisions governing the compilation of the Rich List are published in the newspaper and online as its "Rules of engagement".[1]
The Rich List is not limited to British citizens and it includes individuals and families born overseas but who predominantly work and/or live in Britain. This excludes some individuals with prominent financial assets in Britain such as Rupert Murdoch (owner of The Times and The Sunday Times). Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born U.S. citizen and is not based in Britain, which excludes him. The Sunday Times always acknowledges this every year and details where he would have been in the list if he had qualified.
The editors estimate subjects' wealth from a range of public information, based on values at January each year. They typically explain their actions by stating: "We measure identifiable wealth, whether land, property, racehorses, art or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. We exclude bank accounts—to which we have no access... We try to give due consideration to liabilities."
The Sunday Times Rich List 2007 was published as a supplement in The Sunday Times on 29 April 2007. The Sunday Times Rich List 2008 was published as a supplement in The Sunday Times on 27 April 2008.
[edit] Book version
A fuller version of the Rich List is also published in a reference book edition, edited by Philip Beresford. This list covers the top 5,000 richest people, rather than the top 1,000, and includes their business addresses:
- Sunday Times Rich List 2006-2007 was published by A & C Black in December 2006 (ISBN 978-0713679410).
- Sunday Times Rich List 2007-2008 was due to be published by A & C Black in November 2007 (ISBN 978-0713685152) but no book appeared due to a deadlock between the publishers and The Sunday Times. The publisher was keen to carry on but only if a CD version was attached to the book. The Sunday Times would not allow this as it would give competitors a chance to develop their own database and launch rival rich lists.[2]
