Northern Ireland 'most generous region in UK' survey finds
Winning the lottery is a dream that never comes true for most people, yet in 2024, the National Lottery alone created 383 millionaires.
What you'd do with your winnings is often a topic of conversation in offices and amongst friends and family, but until now, there'd been no definitive answer as to what the most popular course of action would be.
With this in mind, the team at OLBG decided to survey 1,500 Brits to find out what they would actually do with their winnings and if there were any disparities between regions. They took particular interest in which area of the UK would be the most generous if they were lucky enough to win the lottery, and the findings revealed some very interesting results.
Despite being one of the least inclined to give more than £100,000 to close friends and family members, Northern Ireland is the UK region that would be most likely to gift some of their winnings to charities. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 would gift some of their winnings to charities, with 68% saying they would give to health and medical research, and another 44% to poverty and homelessness. Education (21%), and environmental charities were chosen last (15%).
The West of England (North and South) and London all rank joint second, with 16% of the respondents saying they would give to charity if they won £10m in the lottery. Health and medical research was again the most popular option for Brits (58%), followed by poverty and homelessness (49%). The North East (14%) completes the top five.
When it comes to giving away to close friends and family, Scottish people rank as the most generous in the UK. In fact, half of Scots (50%) would give at least £100,000 to close friends and family if they won £10m. On average, they would give over £79.5k, which is almost £5,000 more than any other UK region.
The East of England ranks second, with over 4 in 10 (44%) respondents saying they'd give more than £100,000 to close relatives. On average, this works out at more than £75.1k per close family member.
In third place, the other home nation of Wales is also amongst the most generous towards friends and family. Over 4 in 10 would give more than £100,000 and overall Welsh residents would give more than £73.3k away if they won the lottery.