Actors, pop stars and computer geeks: the twenty youngsters most likely to suceed at making £500m

Teenage gold-diggers will no doubt see it as a reference bible; for the rest of us it may simply be a galling reminder of a misspent youth.

A future rich list of Britain's brightest young things has been published, detailing their predicted earnings, even though they have barely passed adolescence.

The "Rich List 2020" is a league table of people under 21 who are likely to become Britain's biggest earners by the end of the next decade.

By then, it is predicted, the 20 young men and women on the list will have a combined wealth of more than £500m.

The list has been put together for the Royal Bank of Scotland by Philip Beresford, who compiles the annual Rich List of Britain's wealthiest people. Music industry insiders, businessmen and sports agents were asked to tip the Beckhams and Bransons of the future.

The list features rising talents such as the actress Keira Knightley, star of Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean, the teenage footballing sensation Wayne Rooney and the Irish singer Samantha Mumba.

But it also includes some less well-known names who are expected to hit the big time within the next decade.

At the top of the 2020 Rich List is 19-year-old Carl Churchill, whose internet company has just turned over its first £1m. He left school at 15 and with £5,000 of savings, set up his firm DMC Internet Ltd. His expertise and future plans mean he will be worth a predicted £100m by 2020.

"I'm a bit blown away by being included on the list, let alone named number one," the teenager from Solihull in the West Midlands said. "My parents were a bit worried when I said I was going to set up a company instead of doing A-levels or going to university, but they've been very supportive.

"I don't think I'll have a problem with gold-diggers because I've got a good set of friends and family around me."

Mr Churchill, who employs 12 permanent staff, appears a well-grounded young man. "To be honest money bears no value for me but it is nice for someone to acknowledge my ambition," he said.

"My advice to anyone else who wants to make it would be to find strength in even the tiniest glimmer of success, and keep building on this."

The youngest person on the list is 13-year-old Henrietta Brockway, who has been described as the Serena Williams of golf. The youngest member of Team Faldo, a group of promising golfers set up by the championship winner Nick Faldo, she recently became the youngest person to win the Dorset Ladies County Championship. Her first contact with the game came at the age of nine when she watched the US Masters on television. Now playing off a handicap of four, she keeps up her skills by practising in the bunker and green she has had built in her back garden at Yeovil, Somerset.

Third in the top 20 is Harry Brooks, a singer-songwriter who at 19 has already penned 40 tracks including a hit for the boyband Blue, entitled "You Make Me Wanna" and has just secured a deal with Virgin records.

Members of the rich list of the future are already creating a network in which they promote each other's work. A 19-year-old fashion designer Romero Bryan - number five on the list - has seen his creations worn by Samantha Mumba (no 8). Mr Bryan is currently a student at the London College of Fashion and his ambition is to build his own clothing empire.

Samantha Mumba, 19, who attended the Billie Barry Stage School in Dublin, got her big break when she met Louis Walsh, manager of Boyzone and Westlife, who brokered a deal with Polydor Records. She also appears as Mara in Steven Spielberg's 2002 version of H G Wells's The Time Machine.

The report's authors are eager to point out that, unlike the adult rich lists in which half of all millionaires are from London and the South-east, the chart for emerging tycoons has a broad geographical spread. A new generation of northern industrialists are represented by the likes of William Felix from Derby and Adam Hildreth from Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Sixteen-year-old William - estimated fortune £5m - set up his own lawnmowing company with a £5,000 inheritance while still at grammar school. Since then he has become an agent for the US mower company Snapper and still finds the time to renovate vintage tractors and breed rare sheep.

Adam Hildreth left his state school at 16 and is now managing director of Dubut - a youth marketing company. It is anticipated that he will be worth £40m by the end of the next decade.

Traditional class and gender boundaries will be no bar to future success, the report claims. Twelve out of the top 20 went to state schools and eight are female. However one young man has more than most to thank his father for.

Sam Branson, 18, son of the Virgin tycoon Sir Richard, began work this summer as a model for Ozwald Boateng. The fashion designer was said to have been immediately impressed with the way he looked. "He doesn't fit into any obvious pigeonholes," Mr Boateng said. He is anticipating earning £1,000 a day on the catwalk. Branson junior can also look forward to an inheritance of anything up £1.25bn, the survey says, giving him an estimated worth in 2020 of £10m.

Paul Thwaite, head of youth banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which published the list, said: "All the members of the Rich List 2020 clearly have the X-factor, an exceptional talent or perception for opportunity.

"What these young people also have in common is the ability to couple a natural talent with a sound understanding of how to make the most of it and make their financial success last."

The richest people in Britain - in 2020

1 CARL CHURCHILL - INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR

After starting work as a professional designer aged 14, Carl was too busy to collect his GCSE results from his state school.

Not satisfied with being the teenage director of his own internet firm, BITS New Media Ltd, he went on to found DMC Internet Ltd in July 2000, using £5,000 of personal savings.

DMC has just achieved its first £1m of turnover.

Mr Churchill describes himself as neither a saver nor a spender, but more of an investor. His ambition is to make enough money to retire by the age of 25.

2 KEIRA KNIGHTLEY - ACTRESS

Keira got her first agent at the age of six and her first big role - in The Phantom Menace - at 12, while still at school in Teddington, south-west London.

She appeared in the television adaptation of Dr Zhivago before making her name as a football-playing schoolgirl in Bend it Like Beckham. The daughter of the actor Will Knightley and the playwright Sharman MacDonald, she can currently be seen in The Pirates of the Caribbean, alongside Johnny Depp. This year she won the London Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer.

3 HARRY BROOKS, SINGER/SONGWRITER

The half-Welsh, half-Indonesian 19-year-old has already enjoyed an early taste of success writing "You Make Me Wanna" for the boyband Blue, which hit the charts in March this year.

He secured his first deal with Messy/Virgin Records in 2002. His musical influences include Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Jodeci. He is currently working on his debut album and has been confirmed to perform on the upcoming Blues and Soul tour.

4 Adam Hildreth, 18, internet entrepreneur, predicted to be worth £40m

5= Alexander Sims, 15, racing driver, £30m

5= Romero Bryan, 19, fashion designer, £30m

5= Jamie Bell, above, 17, actor, £30m

8= Alexia, singer, 19, £25m

8= Wayne Rooney, 18, footballer, £25m

8= Samantha Mumba, right, 19, singer £25m

8= David George, 20, internet entrepreneur, £25m

12= James Milner, 17, footballer, £20m

12= Hannah Taylor-Gordon, 16, actress, £20m

14= Amy Studt, 17, singer, £15m

15= Sam Branson, 18, model, £10m

15= Lucy Adams, 19, skateboarder, £10m

17= William Felix, 16, entrepreneur, £5m

17= Henrietta Brockway, above, 13, golfer, £5m

17= Bryony and Kathryn Frost, 19, athletes, £5m

20 Shanaze Reade, 15, BMX biker, £3m