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Making Billions: The Richest People in the World

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The Richest People in the World

In the last year, the wealth controlled by the world’s top 10 billionaires has jumped by over $76B.

Even in the teeth of jittery markets, many of the world’s richest people have seen their wealth surge to new heights as COVID-19 unfolds.

Today’s infographic draws data from Forbes Billionaire’s List and shows a broad cross-section of the world’s billionaires – highlighting their stratospheric wealth in the current economic climate.

Wealth in Astonishing Circumstances

The below table shows the fortunes of the world’s 10 richest people, comparing the numbers from March 5, 2019 to the most recent data from April 22, 2020.

RankNameNet Worth 2020*Net Worth 2019*Change 2019-2020
#1Jeff Bezos$145B$131B+$14.1B
#2Bill Gates$104B$97B+$7.1B
#3Bernard Arnault & Family$92B$76B+$15.5B
#4Warren Buffett$73B$83B-$9.1B
#5Mark Zuckerberg$69B$62B+$6.5B
#6Larry Ellison$66B$63B+$3.4B
#7Steve Ballmer$63B$41B+$21.3B
#8Amancio Ortega$61B$63B-$2.2B
#9Larry Page$58B$51B+$7.6B
#10Jim Walton$57B$45B+$12.0B
Total Change+$76.2B

Source: Forbes – *As of April 22, 2020 **As of March 5, 2019

Gaining the highest across the top 10 is former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who saw his fortune rise over $21 billion since March 2019.

Facing the steepest losses belong to investing luminary Warren Buffett, whose net worth has dropped over $9 billion over the past year. At year-end 2019 Buffett was a 11% shareholder in Delta Airlines. In April, Buffett sold 13 million shares in the airline.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune is holding steady. Amazingly, the Facebook founder still remains one of the world’s youngest billionaires (ranking 22nd out of 2,095) despite first joining the billionaire club a dozen years ago.

Newcomers to the List

As a new decade begins, who are among the most newly-minted billionaires?

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom has climbed in the ranks as online video communication demand soars. Zoom went public in April 2019 at a stunning $9.2 billion IPO valuation. As of April 24, 2020, Zoom was valued at over $44.3 billion.

RankNameNet WorthSource of Wealth
#1Eric Yuan$7.8BZoom
#2Anthony von Mandl$3.9BMark Anthony Brands
#3Larry Xiangdong Chen$3.6BGSX Techedu
#4Dmitry Bukhman$3.1BPlayrix
#5Igor Bukhman$3.1BPlayrix
#6Sun Huaiqing$3.0BGuangdong Marubi Biotechnology
#7Forrest Li$2.4BSea Group
#8Byju Raveendran$1.7BByju's
#9Jitse Groen$1.5BTakeaway.com
#10Qian Ying$1.5BMuyuan Foods

*As of April 22, 2020

Similarly, Netherland’s Jitse Groen has witnessed his food-delivery company Takeaway.com expand extensively. Takeaway.com currently operates in 11 countries across Europe and received regulatory approval to complete a $7.6 billion merger with JustEat in April.

Forrest Li who runs Sea, an online-gaming and e-commerce company, has similarly joined the ranks. Tencent and private equity firm General Atlantic are among its major stakeholders.

The COVID-19 Response

As the global economy contends with a loss of confidence and job losses, some of the world’s richest people are stepping up to the plate.
Billionaires with COVID-19 donations

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is donating roughly 25% of his net worth to COVID-19 in the form of Square stock, valued at $1B.

His donation, which was placed in a donor-advised fund called Start Small LLC, is more than four times higher than any other billionaire. That said, after the pandemic, Dorsey also stated that this money may also go towards girl’s health and education, as well as universal basic income (UBI).

RankNameCOVID-19-Related Donation% of Net Worth
#1Jack Dorsey$1B25.6%
#2Bill & Melinda Gates$255M0.2%
#3Azim Premji$132M2.2%
#4Andrew Forrest$100M+1.2%+
#5Jeff Bezos$100M0.1%
#6Michael Dell$100M0.4%
#7Lynn Schusterman, Stacy Schusterman$70M2.1%
#8Amancio Ortega$68M0.1%
#9Nicky Oppenheimer$54.5M0.7%
#10Johann Rupert$54.5M1.1%

*As of April 15, 2020

Overall, 77 of the world’s billionaires have made public contributions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, just a fraction of the world’s ultra-rich.

As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, will the world’s billionaires still accumulate wealth at greater speeds, or will a different picture emerge as unconventional policies around the world become increasingly commonplace?

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Wealth

Mapped: Where Do the Wealthiest People in the World Live?

There are over 600,000 individuals worldwide with a net worth surpassing $30 million, representing the wealthiest people on the planet. Here’s where they live.

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A cropped map of the world showing where the wealthiest people live in 2024.

Where Do the Wealthiest People in the World Live?

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.

Investors didn’t expect 2023 to be the bumper year for returns it ended up being. Despite tightening monetary policies and surging bond yields, equities continued their strong performance (helped hugely by enthusiasm around the potential of artificial intelligence).

This has boosted wealth creation, and the growth of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the world.

We map out where the 600,000+ UHNWIs reside, as of the end 2023. To be categorized as such, a person’s net worth needs to be higher than $30 million. This map uses data from the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024.

It’s worth noting that some countries that are known hotspots for the wealthy—including Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia—do not have specified numbers in the source report and have not been covered in this map and article.

Ranked: Countries By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals

At the top of the ranks, accounting for more than one-third of the wealthiest in the world, the U.S. is home to 225,000 UHNWIs, more than double the number of 99,000 UHNWIs in China.

Together, the world’s two largest economies are home to 50% of the world’s wealthiest.

RankTerritoryUHNWI
Population
YoY Growth% of World
UHNWIs
1🇺🇸 U.S.225,077+7.9%35.9%
2🇨🇳 China98,551+3.3%15.7%
3🇩🇪 Germany29,021+1.1%4.6%
4🇨🇦 Canada27,928+2.0%4.5%
5🇫🇷 France24,941+0.2%4.0%
6🇬🇧 UK23,072+3.1%3.7%
7🇯🇵 Japan21,710+0.3%3.5%
8🇮🇹 Italy15,952+3.8%2.5%
9🇦🇺 Australia15,347+2.9%2.4%
10🇨🇭 Switzerland14,734+5.2%2.4%
11🇮🇳 India13,263+6.1%2.1%
12🇪🇸 Spain10,149+1.7%1.6%
13🇳🇱 Netherlands8,390+0.2%1.3%
14🇹🇼 Taiwan7,640-0.3%1.2%
15🇰🇷 South Korea7,310+5.6%1.2%
16🇭🇰 Hong Kong5,957+2.5%1.0%
17🇸🇬 Singapore4,783+4.0%0.8%
18🇸🇪 Sweden4,125+2.5%0.7%
19🇳🇿 New Zealand2,587+2.9%0.4%
20🇳🇴 Norway2,276+1.1%0.4%
21🇦🇹 Austria2,167+0.3%0.3%
22🇹🇷 Türkiye1,932+9.7%0.3%
23🇮🇪 Ireland1,890+0.4%0.3%
24🇮🇩 Indonesia1,479+4.2%0.2%
25🇫🇮 Finland1,269+4.1%0.2%
26🇹🇭 Thailand889+0.8%0.1%
27🇿🇦 South Africa835-1.3%0.1%
28🇵🇹 Portugal800+3.0%0.1%
29🇲🇾 Malaysia754+4.3%0.1%
30🇻🇳 Vietnam752+2.4%0.1%
N/A🌐 Other51,039+0.1%8.1%
N/A🌍 World626,619+4.2%N/A

Note: The organization uses a dynamic proprietary wealth-sizing model created by their data engineering team to arrive at these figures. Exact numbers may change between different editions of this report.

Ranked third, Germany, has close to 30,000 UHNWIs, following the pattern of the biggest economic powerhouses having the highest share of the wealthy.

This correlation remains generally constant outside the top three as well, even if exact positions aren’t quite maintained:

  • Canada, 10th largest economy, 4th in share of wealthiest people.
  • Australia, 14th largest economy, 9th in wealthiest people.
  • Switzerland, 20th largest economy, 10th in wealthiest people.
  • India, 6th largest economy, 11th in wealthiest people.

Together, these top countries by share of UHNWIs account for 92% of all individuals with a net worth greater than $30 million.

Other countries, not specifically mentioned in the report, have 59,039 UHNWIs, or 8.1% of the world’s total.

Ranked: Regions By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals

Unsurprisingly, buoyed by the U.S. and China, North America and Asia are the top two regions by wealthiest individuals.

Europe is close behind Asia however; a reminder of the region’s collective economic might.

RankRegionUHNWI PopulationYoY Growth
1North America253,066+7.2%
2Asia165,442+2.6%
3Europe155,232+1.8%
4Middle East18,790+6.2%
5Oceania17,934+2.9%
6South America13,159-3.6%
7Africa2,996+3.8%

The oil-rich Middle East also outperforms on the wealthy individuals metric and saw the highest YoY growth in the ultra-wealthy after North America.

The world as a whole grew its UHNWI population by 4.2% and only South America saw a contraction in numbers between 2022 and 2023.

Where Does This Data Come From?

Source: Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024.

Note: Some countries that are known hotspots for the wealthy, including Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia have not been specified by the source report, and thus do not appear on this map.

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