Just one in six Irish adults is confident they will become a millionaire, excluding the value of their home, according to a new survey.
When Standard Life interviewed 1,000 adults 17 per cent said they expected to make a million and those in the 35 to 44-year-old age group were the most confident.
Brendan Barr, head of marketing with Standard Life said it was interesting that the age-group facing the highest financial pressures - with mortgages and children - appeared the most confident.
He said it was surprising that the respondents were not more confident overall "given the enormous wealth created in the past decade".
An inheritance was the most likely route to fortune with almost a quarter of those expecting to make a million saying they believed it would come from this route.
A further 21 per cent said they believed owning their own business was the most likely source with 18 per cent confident that winning a lottery would deliver riches.
The survey found that men were nearly twice as confident about making a million.