Women becoming the richer sex

By 2025 women will own 60 per cent of the UK's personal wealth compared to the 48 per cent they own today, reports the Times.

11:30 25 April 2005

By 2025 women will own 60 per cent of the UK's personal wealth compared to the 48 per cent they own today, reports the Times.

A study conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business research that suggests this figure also found that UK millionaires aged under 45 and over 65 were more likely to be women. Female millionaires aged between 18 and 44 outnumber their male counterparts by around 10,000, and there are 5,000 more female millionaires aged over 65 than there are men.

The research made its predictions based on existing figures of personal wealth, education and working patterns. Significant factors in the study's findings were that the number of women in work has risen while the numbers of employed men has fallen, women are continuing to perform better in education and generally are expected to live longer.

A spokesperson for Liverpool Victoria, who sponsored the research told the Times: "This change will come about due to the rise of a cohort of financially sophisticated younger women, adding to the traditional sources of female wealth such as marriage and inheritance."

However, although women will be coming into more money, they are less likely to engage in any long-term financial planning than men, the report added. Women are half as likely as men to have a stakeholder pension, while single women are far less likely to have mortgage protection, employment protection or health insurance.