Is your area one of the most lucky for Premium Bonds jackpot winners?

In the last 29 years, National Savings and Investments has created 512 Premium Bonds millionaires.

This week, NS&I boosted the underlying rate to 4.65 per cent, along with boosting the number of £100,000 and £50,000 prizes.

There are two top prizes of £1million – it has been paying that jackpot amount each month since April 1994, adding the second £1million prize in 2005.

And today, This is Money can reveal the areas which have seen the most millionaires made – and top of the pile is Surrey. The county has seen 28 jackpot winners.

Surrey, Kent and Essex have the lionshare of Premium Bonds millionaires

Taking second place is Kent, with 23 winners and third is Essex, with 22. 

This month, two winners took home the £1million jackpot with bonds bought less than 12 months ago, one from Hereford & Worcester and the other from Essex.

Our analysis shows that Surrey, Kent and Essex account for 13 per cent of all Premium Bonds jackpot winners since 1994.

In terms of Premium Bonds holders, in total 8.6 per cent of holders come from Surrey, Kent and Essex according to NS&I, suggesting above average luck in these three counties. 

Our analysis of NS&I figures show almost half of Premium Bonds millionaires are based in the South East, South West and London areas.

Premium Bonds remain the nation’s best loved savings product, with roughly 21million savers involved. A prize fund of more than £404million was paid out to winners across the country from August’s draw.

According to NS&I, the South East has the most millionaires per customers by a wide margin, with 94 jackpot winners to 3.48million customers based there

It is followed by London with 63 millionaires to 2.42million customers and then the East, with 59 millionaires to 2.27million customers.

The data also shows there are 1.78million overseas NS&I customers holding 1.61million bonds – but only five millionaires.  

For Premium Bonds holders living outside the UK, NS&I only publish the country when there are at least 100,000 holders living there. Otherwise, it publishes the area as ‘overseas’.

How likely are you to win the jackpot?

NS&I said that August’s prize draw saw the odds of winning improve from 24,000 to 1 to 22,000 to 1, meaning that each £1 Bond now has its best chance of winning a prize in almost 15 years.

There are only two £1million prizes paid out each month, so the odds don’t look great when it comes to winning the jackpot.

In a given year, someone with the maximum £50,000 holding has a 1 in 100,460 chance of winning the £1million jackpot at least once, according to statistician Dr Dunne-Willows, who This is Money recently put the question to.

This lengthens to one in 502,280 for someone with £10,000 in Premium Bonds,

The odds of a person with £1,000 in Premium Bonds winning the £1million prize within a year is more than one in 5million.

To put that in perspective, you have a better chance of being eaten by a shark or hit by lightening in your lifetime than you do of winning the top Premium Bonds prize in a year.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk