A billionaire family have been ranked the 15th richest in the UK according to the 2022 Rich List by The Sunday Times.

The Rausing family have many links to the county with a sprawling wild boar farm in Tenterden and a even larger estate in Wadhurst next to Bewl Water on the border with Sussex.

Hans, Marit, Lisbet and Sigrid Rausing have been named in the 2022 Rich List, with a combined fortune of £9.49bn.

This placed them 15th in the list, which revealed a record 177 billionaires now live in the country.

The wealthy Swedish family inherited their fortune from Tetra Pak - a multi-national food packaging company founded by Ruben Rausing in 1951.

Tetra Pak was passed on to his son Hans who continued to be successful alongside his wife Marit and children, Lisbet, Sigrit and Hans Kristian.

Hans passed away in 2019, leaving the business and 960-acre Wadhurst Park in the hands of his children.

Despite their Swedish roots, the tycoons have many links to Kent and even founded a book club for children in the county.

In 1982 the family relocated to avoid high taxes in Sweden and Hans purchased the estate.

On the vast grounds, they expanded the original estate with the help of architect John Outram.

The 'New House' is a terrazzo and steel one-storey building.

In Wadhurst he also raised one of Europe's largest herds of deer.

Hans also owned a 600-acre wild boar farm in Tenterden to fulfil his passion for philanthropy, ecology and the environment.

While in Kent, the family founded Buster's Book Club, a literacy scheme for children run by the KM Charity Team.

The connections don't stop there though, with Dr Sigrid Rausing being awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent at Rochester Cathedral.

Dr Rausing was made a Doctor of Letters in recognition of her contribution to philanthropy and publishing.

She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the UK’s largest philanthropic foundations, which by 2014 had distributed approximately £208 million to human rights organisations.

Including the Rausings, six families from Kent made it onto the Rich List this year, with a combined fortune of more than £15bn.

Caravan park billionaire Peter Harris was ranked 113th (worth £1.596bn), and made his first moves into the holiday industry with a caravan park in Whitstable.

The Fleming family came in just behind at 118th for their £1.525bn earned through Stonehage Fleming, a multinational wealth management company - Matthew Fleming is former Kent County cricket player.

Peter Jones from BBC's Dragon's Den has a wealth of £1.167bn and set up an Enterprise Academy in Folkestone College back in 2019 to help young entrepreneurs.

Also with links to Folkestone, Sir Roger and Peter de Haan were ranked 190th for their fortune of £905m from the over 50s company Saga.

After selling off the business for £1bn back in 2004, the well-known pair have since invested in local sports projects and creative industries.

Finally, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney is worth £865m and scraped the top 200 in 198th place - the singer also owns a house in Peasmarsh.