Economy

Ranked: Who Are the Richest People in Africa?

Published

7 months ago

March 6, 2023

Pallavi Rao

Graphics/Design:

Bhabna Banerjee

This graphic ranks the richest people in Africa. Aliko Dangote from Nigeria leads the group.

Ranked: Who Are the Richest People in Africa?

The African continent is home to 46 billionaires, the second-lowest total of any global region.

The number of wealthy individuals in Africa is growing, however. Total private wealth is expected to rise 30% over the next decade, led by growth in the billionaire and millionaire segments.

Visualized here are Africa’s richest, using data collected by Forbes, on billionaires who reside on the continent and have their primary business there.

Breaking Down Africa’s Billionaires

The richest man in Africa is also the richest Black man in the world. Once a small sugar trader, Aliko Dangote now has a net worth of $13.5 billion. He is the 86th richest person in the world, and single-handedly makes up 25% of the total wealth of African billionaires.

His company, the Dangote Group is now an African conglomerate with interests in a range of sectors, including sugar, cement, and real estate.

Rank	Name	Net Worth (billions, USD)	Industry	Citizenship
1	Aliko Dangote	$13.5	Manufacturing	🇳🇬 Nigeria
2	Johann Rupert & family	$10.7	Fashion & Retail	🇿🇦 South Africa
3	Nicky Oppenheimer & family	$8.4	Metals & mining	🇿🇦 South Africa
4	Abdulsamad Rabiu	$7.6	Diversified	🇳🇬 Nigeria
5	Nassef Sawiris	$7.3	Construction & Engineering	🇪🇬 Egypt
6	Mike Adenuga	$6.3	Diversified	🇳🇬 Nigeria
7	Issad Rebrab & family	$4.6	Food & Beverage	🇩🇿 Algeria
8	Naguib Sawiris	$3.3	Telecom	🇪🇬 Egypt
9	Patrice Motsepe	$3.2	Metals & mining	🇿🇦 South Africa
10	Mohamed Mansour	$2.9	Diversified	🇪🇬 Egypt
11	Koos Bekker	$2.6	Media & Entertainment	🇿🇦 South Africa
12	Strive Masiyiwa	$1.9	Telecom	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
13	Mohammed Dewji	$1.5	Diversified	🇹🇿 Tanzania
13	Aziz Akhannouch & family	$1.5	Diversified	🇲🇦 Morocco
13	Youssef Mansour	$1.5	Diversified	🇪🇬 Egypt

The top three—Alike Dangote, Johann Rupert, and Nicky Oppenheimer—account for 40% of the total wealth of those ranked.

A Look Through the Rest of the Richest People in Africa

At number two on the list is Johann Rupert. The chairman of Swiss luxury goods company, Compagnie Financiere Richemont, started his career with a banking apprenticeship in New York, before returning to South Africa and eventually pivoting to retail.

Through the rest of those ranked, a range of diverse business activities have allowed these billionaires to garner their wealth.

Nicky Oppenheimer (3rd) and Patrice Motsepe (9th)—have made fortunes in the mining industry, a sector which contributes nearly 10% to sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP. Meanwhile, Naguib Sawiris (8th) and Strive Masiyiwa (12th) have built telecom empires.

Billionaire Wealth Mirrors Country Wealth

Only seven out of the 54 African countries are represented on Africa’s rich list, and even amongst them, three countries (Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria) account for more than two-thirds of the top-ranked billionaires.

Country	Rank in African Economy	Individuals on Top 15 Billionaire List
🇳🇬 Nigeria	#1	3
🇿🇦 South Africa	#2	4
🇪🇬 Egypt	#3	4

The home countries for these billionaires reflects the nations’ contribution to the African economy as a whole. Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt have the top three GDPs in Africa.

Algeria—where Issad Rebrab (7th) is from—is ranked fourth, and Morocco—where Aziz Akhannouch (13th) is based—is fifth.

What’s Next For Africa’s Richest?

Africa has routinely been touted to become a future economic powerhouse as its demographic dividend pays off in the next few decades. However, its biggest challenge will be developing its economic and social infrastructure to retain local talent to make their fortunes at home.

Where does this data come from?

Source: Forbes.

Data note: Forbes calculated net worths using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, January 13, 2023. For privately held businesses, they used estimates of revenues or profits and applied prevailing price-to-sale or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies. Some list members grew richer or poorer within weeks or days of their measurement date.

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United States

Mapped: How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?

An annual income anywhere between $360,000-$950,000 can grant entry into the top 1%—depending on where you live in America.

Published

1 day ago

September 25, 2023

Pallavi Rao

A cropped map of the U.S. listing the annual income needed to be in the top 1% in each state.

How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?

There’s an old saying: everyone thinks that they’re middle-class.

But how many people think, or know, that they really belong to the top 1% in the country?

Data from personal finance advisory services company, SmartAsset, reveals the annual income threshold at which a household can be considered part of the top 1% in their state.

Some states demand a much higher yearly earnings from their residents to be a part of the rarefied league, but which ones are they, and how much does one need to earn to make it to the very top echelon of income?

Ranking U.S. States By Income to Be in the Top 1%

At the top of the list, a household in Connecticut needs to earn nearly $953,000 annually to be part of the one-percenters. This is the highest minimum threshold across the country.

In the same region, Massachusetts requires a minimum annual earnings of $903,401 from its top 1% residents.

Here’s the list of all 50 U.S. states along with the annual income needed to be in the 1%.

Rank	State	Top 1% Income Threshold	Top 1% Tax Rate (% of annual income)
1	Connecticut	$952,902	28.40%
2	Massachusetts	$903,401	27.15%
3	California	$844,266	26.95%
4	New Jersey	$817,346	28.01%
5	Washington	$804,853	25.99%
6	New York	$776,662	28.29%
7	Colorado	$709,092	25.86%
8	Florida	$694,987	25.82%
9	Illinois	$660,810	26.35%
10	New Hampshire	$659,037	26.25%
11	Wyoming	$656,118	24.79%
12	Virginia	$643,848	26.11%
N/A	National Average	$652,657	N/A
13	Maryland	$633,333	25.94%
14	Texas	$631,849	25.83%
15	Utah	$630,544	23.77%
16	Minnesota	$626,451	25.53%
17	Nevada	$603,751	25.19%
18	South Dakota	$590,373	22.99%
19	Pennsylvania	$588,702	24.95%
20	North Dakota	$585,556	24.76%
21	Georgia	$585,397	25.06%
22	Oregon	$571,813	24.66%
23	Arizona	$564,031	25.22%
24	Idaho	$560,040	23.17%
25	North Carolina	$559,762	25.31%
26	Montana	$559,656	24.46%
27	Kansas	$554,912	25.03%
28	Rhode Island	$548,531	25.26%
29	Tennessee	$548,329	25.12%
30	Alaska	$542,824	25.38%
31	Nebraska	$535,651	24.10%
32	Delaware	$529,928	25.37%
33	Vermont	$518,039	23.63%
34	Wisconsin	$517,321	24.90%
35	South Carolina	$508,427	24.40%
36	Michigan	$504,671	25.01%
37	Maine	$502,605	24.04%
38	Missouri	$500,626	24.93%
39	Ohio	$500,253	25.09%
40	Hawaii	$495,263	24.12%
41	Iowa	$483,985	24.09%
42	Indiana	$473,685	24.55%
43	Alabama	$470,341	23.82%
44	Oklahoma	$460,172	23.68%
45	Louisiana	$458,269	24.80%
46	Arkansas	$450,700	21.11%
47	Kentucky	$445,294	24.14%
48	New Mexico	$411,395	23.35%
49	Mississippi	$381,919	23.04%
50	West Virginia	$367,582	23.26%
N/A	National Median Household Income	$75,000	N/A

California ($844,266), New Jersey ($817,346), and Washington ($804,853) round out the top five states with the highest minimum thresholds to make it to their exclusive rich club.

On the other end of the spectrum, the top one-percenters in West Virginia make a minimum of $367,582 a year, the lowest of all the states, and about one-third of the threshold in Connecticut. And just down southwest of the Mountain State, Mississippi’s one-percenters need to make at least $381,919 a year to qualify for the 1%.

A quick glance at the map above also reveals some regional insights.

The Northeast and West Coast, with their large urban and economic hubs, have higher income entry requirements for the top 1% than states in the American South.

This also correlates to the median income by state, a measure showing Massachusetts households make nearly $90,000 a year, compared to Mississippians who take home $49,000 annually.

How Much Do the Top 1% Pay in Taxes?

Meanwhile, if one does make it to the top 1% in states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, expect to pay more in taxes than other states, according to SmartAsset’s analysis.

A chart showing how states with the top highest and lowest average tax rates for their top 1% residents.

The one-percenters in the top five states pay, on average, between 26–28% of their income in tax, compared to those in the bottom five who pay between 21–23%.

And this pattern exists through the dataset, with higher top 1% income thresholds correlating with higher average tax rates for the wealthy.

State Ranks	Median Tax Rate
Top 10	26.65%
20-30	25.09%
30-40	24.65%
10-20	25.07%
40-50	23.75%

These higher tax rates point to attempts to reign in the increasing wealth disparity in the nation where the top 1% hold more than one-third of the country’s wealth, up from 27% in 1989.

Where Does This Data Come From?

Source: SmartAsset’s America’s Top 1% Is Different in Each State uses data from 2020 individual tax filings from the IRS, adjusted to 2023 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.