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Mapping Out the Richest Billionaires in Each Country

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Map of the richest billionaires in each country

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Mapping Out The Richest Billionaires in Each Country

While there are nearly 8 billion people in the world, just over 3,000 are billionaires as of November 2022. This tiny group of people is worth nearly $11.8 trillion—Equivalent to about 11.8% of global GDP.

Where do these billionaires live? This graphic by Truman Du uses data from Forbes to map out the richest billionaires around the world.

The Full List

As it turns out, billionaires are a lot more geographically concentrated than you might think.

In fact, of the 195 officially recognized countries around the world, only 76 are home to billionaires. And even within these countries, there’s vast disparities between the quantity of billionaires.

Here’s a breakdown of all the countries that have at least one billionaire. For countries with more than one, we’ve highlighted the billionaire with the highest net worth as of November 28, 2022:

Country/territoryNameNet worth ($B)Main source of wealth (sector)
🇩🇿 AlgeriaIssad Rebrab5.1food
🇦🇷 ArgentinaMarcos Galperin4.0e-commerce
🇦🇲 ArmeniaRuben Vardanyan1.3investment banking
🇦🇺 AustraliaGina Rinehart27.9mining
🇦🇹 AustriaGeorg Stumpf7.9real estate, construction
🇧🇩 BangladeshMuhammed Aziz Khan1.0power
🇧🇧 BarbadosRihanna1.4music, cosmetics
🇧🇪 BelgiumEric Wittouck9.0investments
🇧🇿 BelizeKenneth Dart4.0investments
🇧🇷 BrazilJorge Paulo Lemann15.6beer
🇧🇬 BulgariaGeorgi & Kiril Domuschiev1.9animal health, investments
🇨🇦 CanadaDavid Thomson53.2media
🇨🇱 ChileIris Fontbona19.6mining
🇨🇳 ChinaZhong Shanshan66.7beverages, pharmaceuticals
🇨🇴 ColombiaLuis Carlos Sarmiento6.3banking
🇨🇾 CyprusJohn Fredriksen11.4shipping
🇨🇿 CzechiaRenata Kellnerova16.0finance, telecommunications
🇩🇰 DenmarkAnders Holch Povlsen11.9fashion retail
🇪🇬 EgyptNassef Sawiris7.2construction, investments
🇪🇪 EstoniaKristo Kaarmann1.4payments, banking
🇫🇮 FinlandAntti Herlin3.9elevators, escalators
🇫🇷 FranceBernard Arnault179.5LVMH
🇬🇪 GeorgiaBidzina Ivanishvili4.8investments
🇩🇪 GermanyBeate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr.35.1supermarkets
🇬🇷 GreeceVicky Safra7.1banking
🇬🇬 GuernseyStephen Lansdown2.3financial services
🇭🇰 Hong KongLi Ka-shing33.0diversified
🇭🇺 HungarySandor Csanyi1.1finance, real estate
🇮🇸 IcelandThor Bjorgolfsson2.5investments
🇮🇳 IndiaGautam Adani133.6infrastructure, commodities
🇮🇩 IndonesiaR. Budi Hartono23.4banking, tobacco
🇮🇪 IrelandJohn Collison & Patrick Collison8,1payments software
🇮🇱 IsraelEyal Ofer14.4real estate, shipping
🇮🇹 ItalyGiovanni Ferrero34.4Nutella, chocolates
🇯🇵 JapanTadashi Yanai29.2fashion retail
🇰🇿 KazakhstanVladimir Kim5.0mining
🇱🇧 LebanonTaha Mikati2.8telecom
🇱🇮 LiechtensteinChristoph Zeller2.2dental materials
🇲🇴 MacauHoi Kin Hong1.2real estate
🇲🇾 MalaysiaQuek Leng Chan10.2banking, property
🇲🇽 MexicoCarlos Slim Helu86.2telecom
🇲🇨 MonacoStefano Pessina9.3drugstores
🇲🇦 MoroccoAziz Akhannouch1.8petroleum
🇳🇵 NepalBinod Chaudhary1.5diversified
🇳🇱 NetherlandsCharlene de Carvalho-Heineken15.0Heineken
🇳🇿 New ZealandGraeme Hart10.1investments
🇳🇬 NigeriaAliko Dangote12.9cement, sugar
🇳🇴 NorwayAndreas Halvorsen6.6hedge funds
🇴🇲 OmanSuhail Bahwan2.0diversified
🇵🇪 PeruCarlos Rodriguez-Pastor4.3finance
🇵🇭 PhilippinesManuel Villar7.0real estate
🇵🇱 PolandMichal Solowow6.0investments
🇵🇹 PortugalMaria Fernanda Amorim4.5energy, investments
🇶🇦 QatarFaisal Bin Qassim Al Thani1.9hotels
🇷🇴 RomaniaIon Stoica & Matei Zaharia1.6data analytics
🇷🇺 RussiaAndrey Melnichenko27.0coal, fertilizers
🇸🇬 SingaporeLi Xiting16.6medical devices
🇸🇰 SlovakiaIvan Chrenko1.6real estate
🇿🇦 South AfricaJohann Rupert9.0luxury goods
🇰🇷 South KoreaJay Y. Lee7.9samsung
🇪🇸 SpainAmancio Ortega62.5Zara
🇰🇳 St. Kitts and NevisMyron Wentz1.3health products
🇸🇿 Swaziland (Eswatini)Nathan Kirsh5.4retail, real estate
🇸🇪 SwedenStefan Persson15.3H&M
🇨🇭SwitzerlandGuillaume Pousaz23.0fintech
🇹🇼 TaiwanZhang Congyuan6.7shoes
🇹🇿 TanzaniaMohammed Dewji1.5diversified
🇹🇭 ThailandSarath Ratanavadi12.2energy
🇹🇷 TurkeyIbrahim Erdemoglu6.5carpet
🇺🇦 UkraineRinat Akhmetov4.3steel, coal
🇦🇪 United Arab EmiratesPavel Durov15.1messaging app
🇬🇧 United KingdomMichael Platt15.2hedge funds
🇺🇸 United StatesElon Musk191.2Tesla, SpaceX
🇻🇪 VenezuelaJuan Carlos Escotet3.2banking
🇻🇳 VietnamPham Nhat Vuong4.7diversified
🇿🇼 ZimbabweStrive Masiyiwa1.2telecom

The United States is well known to have one of the highest concentrations of billionaires. It’s home to over 900, with Elon Musk the wealthiest of them all with a staggering net worth of over $191 billion in November 2022. That makes him not just the richest billionaire in America, but the richest person in the world.

China has the second highest concentration of billionaires, with 400 ultra-wealthy that have a combined net worth of $1.45 trillion. China’s richest billionaire, Zhong Shanshan, is the founder of the Nongfu Spring beverage company.

Interestingly, there are no clear patterns when it comes to the type of industry or sector that these billionaires are involved in. The exception is the U.S., where a significant number of billionaires are linked to the tech industry.

And it’s important to note that some heads of states are reportedly billionaires, and in many cases might be the wealthiest people in their respective countries. But their wealth is often a state secret, well-diversified, and too difficult to accurately estimate.

Male vs. Female Billionaires

One trend that does stand out is the number of men versus women who are billionaires. Of the 76 billionaires on the list, only 7 are women.

This pattern is also evident when looking at the entire billionaire population—of the 3,311 billionaires worldwide, only 12.9% are women.

It’s worth mentioning that this population of billionaire women is rising. According to Forbes, the 2021 list included 328 women, 36% more than in 2020.

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This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Maps

The Incredible Historical Map That Changed Cartography

Check out the Fra Mauro Mappa Mundi (c. 1450s), a historical map that formed a bridge between medieval and renaissance worldviews.

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Historical map of the world depicted as a circular planisphere of the world crafted in the 1450s in Venice, Italy by Fra Mauro.

The Incredible Historical Map That Changed Cartography

This map is the latest in our Vintage Viz series, which presents historical visualizations along with the context needed to understand them.

In a one-paragraph story called On Exactitude in Science (Del Rigor en la Ciencia), Jorge Luis Borges imagined an empire where cartography had reached such an exact science that only a map on the same scale of the empire would suffice.

The Fra Mauro Mappa Mundi (c. 1450s), named for the lay Camaldolite monk and cartographer whose Venetian workshop created it, is not nearly as large, at a paltry 77 inches in diameter (196 cm). But its impact and significance as a bridge between Middle Age and Renaissance thought certainly rivaled Borges’ imagined map.

One of ‘the Wonders of Venice’

Venice was the undisputed commercial power in the Mediterranean, whose trade routes connected east and west, stretching to Flanders, London, Algeria, and beyond.

This network was protected by fleets of warships built at the famous Arsenale di Venezia, the largest production facility in the West, whose workforce of thousands of arsenalotti built ships on an assembly line, centuries before Henry Ford.

A stone Lion of Saint Mark from the pediment of the Arsenale di Venezia, holding a closed book in its in paws.

The lion of St Mark guards the land gate to the Arsenale di Venezia, except instead of the usual open bible in its hands offering peace, this book is closed, reflecting its martial purpose. Source: Wikipedia

The Mappa Mundi (literally “map of the world”) was considered one of the wonders of Venice with a reputation that reached the Holy Land. It is a circular planisphere drawn on four sheets of parchment, mounted onto three poplar panels and reinforced by vertical battens.

The map is painted in rich reds, golds, and blues; this last pigment was obtained from rare lapis lazuli, imported from mines in Afghanistan. At its corners are four spheres showing the celestial and sublunar worlds, the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), and an illumination of the Garden of Eden by Leonardo Bellini (active 1443-1490).

Japan (on the left edge, called the Isola de Cimpagu) appears here for the first time in a Western map. And contradicting Ptolemaic tradition, it also shows that it was possible to circumnavigate Africa, presaging the first European journey around the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488.

NASA called the historical map “stunning” in its accuracy.

A Historical Map Between Two Worlds

Medieval maps, like the Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300), were usually oriented with east at the top, because that’s where the Garden of Eden was thought to be. Fra Mauro, however, chose to orient his to the south, perhaps following Muslim geographers such as Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi.

Significantly, the Garden of Eden is placed outside of geographic space and Jerusalem is no longer at the center, though it is still marked by a windrose. The nearly 3,000 place names and descriptions are written in the Venetian vernacular, rather than Latin.

At the same time, as much as Fra Mauro’s map is a departure from the past, it also retains traces of a medieval Christian worldview. For example, included on the map are the Kingdom of the Magi, the Kingdom of Prester John, and the Tomb of Adam.

T and O style mappa mundi

Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (c. 600–625). Source: Wikipedia

The circular planisphere also follows the medieval T-O schema, first described by Isidore of Seville, with Asia occupying the top half of the circle, and Europe and Africa each occupying the bottom two quarters (Fra Mauro turns the ‘T’ on its side, to reflect a southern orientation). Around the circle, are many islands, beyond which is the “dark sea” where only shipwreck and misfortune await.

Fra Mauro’s Legacy

Fra Mauro died some time before 20 October 1459, and unfortunately his contributions fell into obscurity soon thereafter; until 1748, it was believed that the Mappa Mundi was a copy of a lost map by Marco Polo.

In 1811, the original was moved from Fra Mauro’s monastery of San Michele to the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, following the suppression of religious orders in the Napoleonic era, where it can be viewed today.

Two digital editions have also been produced by the Museo Galileo and the Engineering Historical Memory project, where readers can get a glimpse into a fascinating piece of cartographic history.

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