Connect with us

Money

The Geography of the World’s 50 Top Billionaires

Published

5 years ago

on

50 Top Billionaires by Geography

The Geography of the World’s 50 Top Billionaires

The business world has undergone considerable change in the last two decades.

While some fortunes are always reliably passed on to their respective heirs and heiresses, there are also entirely new industries that rise out of nowhere to shape the landscape of global wealth.

As the wealth landscape shifts, so does its geographical distribution.

The 2019 List of Billionaires

Today’s chart uses data from the most recent edition of the Forbes Billionaires List to map the distribution of the world’s richest people, and then compare that to data from 20 years prior.

We’ll start here by looking at the most recent data from 2019:

RankNameNet Worth ($B)CitizenshipIndustry
#1Jeff Bezos131🇺🇸 USATech, eCommerce
#2Bill Gates96.5🇺🇸 USATech
#3Warren Buffett82.5🇺🇸 USAInvestments
#4Bernard Arnault76🇫🇷 FranceLuxury Goods, Cosmetics
#5Carlos Slim Helu64🇲🇽 MexicoTelecommunications
#6Amancio Ortega62.7🇪🇸 SpainApparel
#7Larry Ellison62.5🇺🇸 USATech
#8Mark Zuckerberg62.3🇺🇸 USATech
#9Michael Bloomberg55.5🇺🇸 USAMedia
#10Larry Page50.8🇺🇸 USATech
#11Charles Koch50.5🇺🇸 USADiversified
#12David Koch50.5🇺🇸 USADiversified
#13Mukesh Ambani50🇮🇳 IndiaOil & Gas, Telecoms
#14Sergey Brin49.8🇺🇸 USATech
#15Francoise Bettencourt49.3🇫🇷 FranceCosmetics
#16Jim Walton44.6🇺🇸 USARetail
#17Alice Walton44.4🇺🇸 USARetail, Art
#18Rob Walton44.3🇺🇸 USARetail
#19Steve Ballmer41.2🇺🇸 USATech
#20Ma Huateng (Pony)38.8🇨🇳 ChinaTech
#21Jack Ma37.3🇨🇳 ChinaTech, eCommerce
#22Hui Ka Yan36.2🇨🇳 ChinaReal Estate
#23Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr.36.1🇩🇪 GermanyRetail
#24Sheldon Adelson35.1🇺🇸 USACasinos
#25Michael Dell34.3🇺🇸 USATech
#26Phil Knight33.4🇺🇸 USAApparel
#27David Thomson32.5🇨🇦 CanadaMedia
#28Li Ka-shing31.7🇨🇳 ChinaDeveloper
#29Lee Shau Kee30.1🇨🇳 ChinaDeveloper
#30François Pinault29.7🇫🇷 FranceLuxury Goods
#31Joseph Safra25.2🇧🇷 BrazilDiversified
#32Leonid Mikhelson24🇷🇺 RussiaOil & Gas
#33Jacqueline Mars23.4🇺🇸 USAFood
#34John Mars23.9🇺🇸 USAFood
#35Jorge Paulo Lemann22.8🇧🇷 BrazilDiversified
#36Azim Premji22.6🇮🇳 IndiaTech
#37Dieter Schwarz22.6🇩🇪 GermanyRetail
#38Wang Jianlin22.6🇨🇳 ChinaReal Estate
#39Giovanni Ferrero22.4🇮🇹 ItalyFood
#40Elon Musk22.4🇺🇸 USAAutomotive, Tech
#41Tadashi Yanai22.2🇯🇵 JapanApparel
#42Yang Huiyan22.1🇨🇳 ChinaReal Estate
#43Masayoshi Son21.6🇯🇵 JapanBanking, Investments
#44Jim Simons21.5🇺🇸 USAInvestments
#45Vladimir Lisin21.3🇷🇺 RussiaSteel, Transportation
#46Susanne Klatten21🇩🇪 GermanyAutomotive, Pharma
#47Vagit Alekperov20.7🇷🇺 RussiaOil & Gas
#48Alexey Mordashov20.5🇷🇺 RussiaSteel, Investments
#49Gennady Timchenko20.1🇷🇺 RussiaOil & Gas
#50Leonardo Del Vecchio19.8🇮🇹 ItalyEyewear

The most recent billionaires list features Jeff Bezos at the top with $131 billion, although it’s likely his recent divorce announcement will provide an upcoming shakeup to the Bezos Empire.

Bezos is just one of 21 Americans that find themselves in the top 50 list, which means that 42% of the world’s top billionaires hail from the United States.

Billionaire Geography Over Time

If we compare the top 50 list to that from 1999, it’s interesting to see what has changed over time in terms of geographical distribution.

Here’s the distribution of top countries on both lists, compared:

CitizenshipTop Billionaires (1999)Top Billionaires (2019)Change
🇷🇺 Russia05+5
🇨🇳 China37+4
🇺🇸 United States1821+3
🇧🇷 Brazil02+2
🇮🇳 India02+2
🇮🇹 Italy12+1
🇪🇸 Spain01+1
🇲🇽 Mexico110
🇨🇦 Canada110
🇧🇲 Bermuda10-1
🇯🇵 Japan32-1
🇫🇷 France53-2
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia20-2
🇹🇼 Taiwan20-2
🇸🇪 Sweden30-3
🇨🇭Switzerland30-3
🇩🇪 Germany73-4

In the last 20 years, Russia and China have stockpiled the most top billionaires, adding five and four to the top 50 list respectively. The United States added three, going from 18 to 21 billionaires over the timeframe.

On the other end of the spectrum, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland have lost the most billionaires from the top 50 ranking.

Related Topics:
Click for Comments

Money

Charted: Which City Has the Most Billionaires in 2024?

Just two countries account for half of the top 20 cities with the most billionaires. And the majority of the other half are found in Asia.

Published

3 days ago

on

April 25, 2024

By

A cropped bar chart ranking the top 20 cities with the most billionaires in 2024.

Charted: Which Country Has the Most Billionaires in 2024?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Some cities seem to attract the rich. Take New York City for example, which has 340,000 high-net-worth residents with investable assets of more than $1 million.

But there’s a vast difference between being a millionaire and a billionaire. So where do the richest of them all live?

Using data from the Hurun Global Rich List 2024, we rank the top 20 cities with the highest number of billionaires in 2024.

A caveat to these rich lists: sources often vary on figures and exact rankings. For example, in last year’s reports, Forbes had New York as the city with the most billionaires, while the Hurun Global Rich List placed Beijing at the top spot.

Ranked: Top 20 Cities with the Most Billionaires in 2024

The Chinese economy’s doldrums over the course of the past year have affected its ultra-wealthy residents in key cities.

Beijing, the city with the most billionaires in 2023, has not only ceded its spot to New York, but has dropped to #4, overtaken by London and Mumbai.

RankCityBillionairesRank Change YoY
1🇺🇸 New York119+1
2🇬🇧 London97+3
3🇮🇳 Mumbai92+4
4🇨🇳 Beijing91-3
5🇨🇳 Shanghai87-2
6🇨🇳 Shenzhen84-2
7🇭🇰 Hong Kong65-1
8🇷🇺 Moscow59No Change
9🇮🇳 New Delhi57+6
10🇺🇸 San Francisco52No Change
11🇹🇭 Bangkok49+2
12🇹🇼 Taipei45+2
13🇫🇷 Paris44-2
14🇨🇳 Hangzhou43-5
15🇸🇬 Singapore42New to Top 20
16🇨🇳 Guangzhou39-4
17T🇮🇩 Jakarta37+1
17T🇧🇷 Sao Paulo37No Change
19T🇺🇸 Los Angeles31No Change
19T🇰🇷 Seoul31-3

In fact all Chinese cities on the top 20 list have lost billionaires between 2023–24. Consequently, they’ve all lost ranking spots as well, with Hangzhou seeing the biggest slide (-5) in the top 20.

Where China lost, all other Asian cities—except Seoul—in the top 20 have gained ranks. Indian cities lead the way, with New Delhi (+6) and Mumbai (+3) having climbed the most.

At a country level, China and the U.S combine to make up half of the cities in the top 20. They are also home to about half of the world’s 3,200 billionaire population.

In other news of note: Hurun officially counts Taylor Swift as a billionaire, estimating her net worth at $1.2 billion.

Continue Reading
Appian-Capital

Subscribe

Popular