Wealth
Making Billions: The Richest People in the World
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.
Rank | Name | Net Worth 2020* | Net Worth 2019* | Change 2019-2020 |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Jeff Bezos | $145B | $131B | +$14.1B |
#2 | Bill Gates | $104B | $97B | +$7.1B |
#3 | Bernard Arnault & Family | $92B | $76B | +$15.5B |
#4 | Warren Buffett | $73B | $83B | -$9.1B |
#5 | Mark Zuckerberg | $69B | $62B | +$6.5B |
#6 | Larry Ellison | $66B | $63B | +$3.4B |
#7 | Steve Ballmer | $63B | $41B | +$21.3B |
#8 | Amancio Ortega | $61B | $63B | -$2.2B |
#9 | Larry Page | $58B | $51B | +$7.6B |
#10 | Jim 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.
Rank | Name | Net Worth | Source of Wealth |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | Eric Yuan | $7.8B | Zoom |
#2 | Anthony von Mandl | $3.9B | Mark Anthony Brands |
#3 | Larry Xiangdong Chen | $3.6B | GSX Techedu |
#4 | Dmitry Bukhman | $3.1B | Playrix |
#5 | Igor Bukhman | $3.1B | Playrix |
#6 | Sun Huaiqing | $3.0B | Guangdong Marubi Biotechnology |
#7 | Forrest Li | $2.4B | Sea Group |
#8 | Byju Raveendran | $1.7B | Byju's |
#9 | Jitse Groen | $1.5B | Takeaway.com |
#10 | Qian Ying | $1.5B | Muyuan 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.
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).
Rank | Name | COVID-19-Related Donation | % of Net Worth |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | Jack Dorsey | $1B | 25.6% |
#2 | Bill & Melinda Gates | $255M | 0.2% |
#3 | Azim Premji | $132M | 2.2% |
#4 | Andrew Forrest | $100M+ | 1.2%+ |
#5 | Jeff Bezos | $100M | 0.1% |
#6 | Michael Dell | $100M | 0.4% |
#7 | Lynn Schusterman, Stacy Schusterman | $70M | 2.1% |
#8 | Amancio Ortega | $68M | 0.1% |
#9 | Nicky Oppenheimer | $54.5M | 0.7% |
#10 | Johann Rupert | $54.5M | 1.1% |
*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?
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.
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.
Rank | Territory | UHNWI Population | YoY Growth | % of World UHNWIs |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 225,077 | +7.9% | 35.9% |
2 | 🇨🇳 China | 98,551 | +3.3% | 15.7% |
3 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 29,021 | +1.1% | 4.6% |
4 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 27,928 | +2.0% | 4.5% |
5 | 🇫🇷 France | 24,941 | +0.2% | 4.0% |
6 | 🇬🇧 UK | 23,072 | +3.1% | 3.7% |
7 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 21,710 | +0.3% | 3.5% |
8 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 15,952 | +3.8% | 2.5% |
9 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 15,347 | +2.9% | 2.4% |
10 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 14,734 | +5.2% | 2.4% |
11 | 🇮🇳 India | 13,263 | +6.1% | 2.1% |
12 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 10,149 | +1.7% | 1.6% |
13 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 8,390 | +0.2% | 1.3% |
14 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 7,640 | -0.3% | 1.2% |
15 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 7,310 | +5.6% | 1.2% |
16 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 5,957 | +2.5% | 1.0% |
17 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 4,783 | +4.0% | 0.8% |
18 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 4,125 | +2.5% | 0.7% |
19 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 2,587 | +2.9% | 0.4% |
20 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 2,276 | +1.1% | 0.4% |
21 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 2,167 | +0.3% | 0.3% |
22 | 🇹🇷 Türkiye | 1,932 | +9.7% | 0.3% |
23 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 1,890 | +0.4% | 0.3% |
24 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 1,479 | +4.2% | 0.2% |
25 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 1,269 | +4.1% | 0.2% |
26 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 889 | +0.8% | 0.1% |
27 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 835 | -1.3% | 0.1% |
28 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 800 | +3.0% | 0.1% |
29 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 754 | +4.3% | 0.1% |
30 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 752 | +2.4% | 0.1% |
N/A | 🌐 Other | 51,039 | +0.1% | 8.1% |
N/A | 🌍 World | 626,619 | +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.
Rank | Region | UHNWI Population | YoY Growth |
---|---|---|---|
1 | North America | 253,066 | +7.2% |
2 | Asia | 165,442 | +2.6% |
3 | Europe | 155,232 | +1.8% |
4 | Middle East | 18,790 | +6.2% |
5 | Oceania | 17,934 | +2.9% |
6 | South America | 13,159 | -3.6% |
7 | Africa | 2,996 | +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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