The start of August was a massive day for Premium Bond holders, with millions of pounds awarded in the latest NS&I prize draw.
This month, NS&I will distribute six million prizes totalling over £396million, including to two new millionaires winning the biggest slice of the proverbial pie.
Every month, the state-owned savings bank issues new information on just who has won the top prizes, and also keeps historical data from previous prize draws, with this month’s biggest winners being from Central Bedfordshire and overseas.
But where has historically seen big Premium Bond wins?
Here is what you need to know.
Which area of the country has seen the most Premium Bond winners?
In research conducted by OLBG.com from March this year, Essex (South East of England) was the area of the UK with the highest number of Premium Bond winners, with around 10,263 prize payouts, which totalled a whopping £30.2million in winnings in the last 12 months.
The county was closely followed by Kent (9,216 winners) and Hampshire & The Isle of Wight (9,134 winners).
Does where you live affect your chances of winning with Premium Bonds?
Realistically, no. Every £1 bond invested has precisely the same chance of winning as every other.
As part of their latest prize draw information, NS&I revealed that the prize fund rate for the August 2025 Premium Bonds prize draw was 3.60%
The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize are currently 22,000 to 1.
NS&I’s famous ERNIE technology is used to randomly draw the winners – once a huge machine employing the same technology as the Bletchley Park WW2 codebreakers, the latest incarnation (ERNIE 5) uses ‘light rather than thermal noise to generate random numbers’.
No, we don’t understand it either.
Andrew Westhead, NS&I retail director, said: ‘Our Central Bedfordshire winner shows that you don’t need to have the full amount invested to win big, as every £1 Bond has an equal chance of winning the £1 million jackpot.’
The only time when geography might affect your chances of getting your hands on the dosh is if you are claiming your premium bonds prize from overseas. If this is the case, you’ll need a UK bank account in order to receive the prize money.
The latest news comes after NS&I also revealed that over £100million remains in unclaimed Premium Bond prizes.
How do you check if you have won on Premium Bonds?
There are two ways to check if you have won on the Premium Bonds prize draw – via the official prize checker app or the nsandi.com prize checker.
You’ll need your Premium Bonds holder’s number to check via the website, or your NS&I number (or holder’s number) to check via the prize checker app.
Previously unclaimed prizes can also be checked the same way.
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