Enter the realm of millionaires
How they won and how their lives have changed - the National Lottery's jackpot winners tell it all.
A lucky year for blokes, builders and those born in May!
New figures reveal that 2011 was a record-breaking year for National Lottery players with the biggest-ever jackpot prize of £161 million being paid out in July and more millionaires created than ever before. But the study also shows that gents have been luckier than the ladies this year and the luckiest profession was construction workers when it came to winning big!
The end of year review shows that in its 17th year, The National Lottery has created 229 millionaires in 12 months, winning a total of £720 million between them — that's an increase of 71 millionaires on 2010. Builders, administrators and transport drivers were shown to be the luckiest professions, whilst those born under Taurus (10th April-20th May) stayed true to their star sign as lovers of rewards and material goods by scoring more jackpots than any other sign of the zodiac. Intriguingly, more than one third (34 percent) of jackpot winners claimed to have received a 'sign' that they were about to come into money, either through their dreams or a psychic prediction. Meanwhile 60 percent of big winners were men compared to 40 percent women.
The record-breaking figures are a result of the continuing British winning streak on EuroMillions during 2011 as well as the UK-only Millionaire Raffle which has, on its own, created an additional 93 millionaires this year. The boost to the number of millionaires created in 2011 meant that The National Lottery has now created more than 2,750 millionaires since its launch in 1994.
A National Lottery spokesperson said: "This has been an extraordinary year for our players with so many new millionaires and multi-millionaires created. There have been some huge prizes paid out during the last 12 months — and we've also been told that many of our big winners have created additional millionaires themselves as a result of their win, which is fantastic news!
"
In addition to the millionaires created before Christmas, a further 25 millionaires were created on Friday 23rd December in a special one-off EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle draw, boosting this year's figures even further. So far, 16 of the 25 lucky ticket-holders have come forward to claim their £1 million prize.
* Winner data relates to the period from 1st January 2011 up to and including the Lotto draw on 21st December 2011
New Year shopping spree!
Sing it from the rooftops!
Roofer Mick Bell scratched his way to £1 million on The National Lottery's Christmas Millionaire Scratchcard.
The winning story