More multimillionaires live in London than in the whole of France, according to a survey of the UK's super rich.

Of Britain's 10,100 multimillionaires – who have a combined wealth of £690bn – 4,220 live in the capital. That is 420 more than France. Manchester has the highest number of "ultra-high net worth individuals" outside London, with 170, followed by Glasgow with 158 and Edinburgh with 134, according to research firm Wealthinsight.

Ken McEwan of solicitors and estate agents McEwan Fraser Legal said he was not surprised by Glasgow and Edinburgh's popularity with the super rich. His firm is handling the sales of multi-million-pound properties owned by the former Rangers footballers Allan McGregor and Kenny Miller, but many of Scotland's rich work in banking and investment.

McEwan thought Edinburgh just had the edge on its neighbour: "Edinburgh is a more historic city, with particularly traditional schools, which provides a wide variety of cultural activities, including the festival in August. As a much smaller city than Glasgow it provides a better balance of urban and rural life."

Birmingham may be Britain's second biggest city, but it can only boast 130 of the super rich. The West Midlands region is home to some 460 multimillionaires, but their numbers fell by 18.3% from 2010 to 2011 – the biggest drop suffered by all the regions included in the survey. Nearly 13% of the super rich living in the West Midlands have made their money through manufacturing.

Lucian Cook, director of the residential research department for estate agents Savills, said that all cities had areas of prime residential property that would appeal to the extremely wealthy but while he could understand multimillionaires living in the towns surrounding Birmingham, such as Stratford-upon-Avon and Solihull, he struggled to see the attractions of England's second biggest city.

One quarter of the multimillionaires living in London work in the financial services industry. Andrew Amolis, who compiled the report, said the number of ultra-wealthy in London fell by 12.8% from 2007 to 2011 after the banking crisis – although their fortunes improved in 2010/11, with their number increasing by 4.9%, but this was surpassed by the proportional increases in the north-east and north-west of 10.2% and 5.9% respectively.