Demographics
The Richest Women in America in One Graphic
The Richest Women in America in One Graphic
The majority of the world’s billionaires hail from the United States.
But of the 724 American billionaires whose net worths are tracked daily by Forbes, only 86 are women. That’s just 12% of the country’s billionaires.
This visualization examines the select few who have made the cut into this prestigious list, using data compiled from Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
Note: All data is as of November 1, 2021 unless otherwise stated.
Top 10 Richest Women in America
Since 2020, MacKenzie Scott has donated over $8.5 billion and counting of her wealth. Yet, she still remains one of the richest women in the world. This is largely due to the Amazon shares that she received in her divorce settlement.
Amazon’s stock performance soared amid the pandemic, which resulted in the initial value of her shares ($38.3 billion) nearly doubling.
Top 10 overall | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Alice Walton | $68.1 B | 72 | Walmart |
#2 | MacKenzie Scott | $56.1 B | 51 | Amazon |
#3 | Julia Koch & family | $52.2 B | 59 | Koch Industries |
#4 | Jacqueline Mars | $31.5 B | 82 | Candy, pet food |
#5 | Miriam Adelson | $29.2 B | 76 | Casinos |
#6 | Abigail Johnson | $26.2 B | 59 | Money management |
#7 | Laurene Powell Jobs & family | $16.7 B | 57 | Apple, Disney |
#8 | Diane Hendricks | $11.7 B | 74 | Roofing |
#9 | Ann Walton Kroenke | $9.3 B | 72 | Walmart |
#10 | Blair Parry-Okeden | $8.8 B | 71 | Media, automotive |
Miriam Adelson inherited her late husband’s 57% stake (worth ~$19 billion) in Las Vegas Sands, making her one of the richest newcomers to the Forbes list. The casinos have locations across Las Vegas, Singapore, and Macao.
Several of the women in this top 10 list also share membership with some of the richest families in America—from the Walmart Waltons, to the Johnsons at the helm of Fidelity Investments and Fidelity International.
The Oldest Richest Women in America
The oldest female billionaire in the world, Alice Schwartz, is 95 years old. She co-founded Bio-Rad Laboratories with her husband, which operates in the life sciences research and clinical diagnostics markets. They started the company in 1952 with only $720 in the bank.
Oldest | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Alice Schwartz | $3.0 B | 95 | Biotech |
#2 | Wilma Tisch | $1.4 B | 94 | Diversified |
#3 | Doris Fisher | $2.8 B | 90 | Gap |
#4 | Johnelle Hunt | $4.7 B | 89 | Trucking |
#5 | Marian Ilitch | $4.4 B | 88 | Little Caesars |
#6 | Pauline MacMillan Keinath | $8.5 B | 87 | Cargill |
#7 | Margot Birmingham Perot | $4.2 B | 87 | Computer services, real estate |
#8 | Martha Ingram & family | $3.9 B | 86 | Book distribution, transportation |
#9 | Janice McNair | $4.2 B | 85 | Energy, sports |
#10 | Norma Lerner | $1.1 B | 85 | Banking |
After her husband’s passing in 2018, Janice McNair (aged 85) took over his 80% stake in the NFL team Houston Texans, which ranks highly as one of the world’s most valuable sports teams. This also subsequently catapulted her position as being among the wealthiest sports owners in the country.
The Youngest Richest Women in America
In the online dating era, Whitney Wolfe Herd has made a name for herself. The female-first dating app she co-founded, Bumble, grew into a formidable competitor for her former employer, Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid, among others).
At age 31, Wolfe Herd became the youngest self-made female CEO in the country after Bumble’s $2.2 billion IPO in February 2021.
Youngest | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Whitney Wolfe Herd | $1.2 B | 32 | Dating app |
#2 | Rihanna | $1.7 B | 33 | Cosmetics, music |
#3 | Neha Narkhede | $1.4 B | 37 | Software |
#4 | Lynsi Snyder | $4.2 B | 39 | In-N-Out Burger |
#5 | Kim Kardashian West | $1.2 B | 41 | Cosmetics, reality TV |
#6 | Jane Lauder | $6.7 B | 48 | Estée Lauder |
#7 | Amy Wyss | $2.0 B | 50 | Medical equipment |
#8 | Sara Blakely | $1.2 B | 50 | Spanx |
#9 | MacKenzie Scott | $56.1 B | 51 | Amazon |
#10 | Aerin Lauder | $4.2 B | 51 | Cosmetics |
Wearing many hats from influencer to entrepreneur, socialite Kim Kardashian West’s cosmetics and fashion companies (KKW Beauty and shapewear line Skims) have catapulted her to a newfound billionaire status. She has a set of diverse revenue streams, from reality TV royalties to blue-chip and real estate investments.
Top 20 Self-Made Richest Women in America
The self-made label is an additional fascinating avenue to explore. Forbes defines this category as people who establish a fortune independently, rather than partly or wholly through inheritance.
One of the newest entrants into this mix is Rihanna. She already enjoyed significant success as an entertainer, with her claim to fame being one of the best-selling artists of the 2010s. However, it was her entrepreneurial spirit that put her on the Forbes list in August 2021. Rihanna owns 50% of her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty. The other half is run by Bernard Arnault, who is among the world’s top billionaires.
Here is the rest of the top 20 self-made richest women in America:
Self-Made | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Diane Hendricks | $11.7 B | 74 | Roofing |
#2 | Judy Faulkner | $6.5 B | 77 | Health IT |
#3 | Meg Whitman | $6.3 B | 65 | eBay |
#4 | Judy Love | $5.2 B | 84 | Retail and gas stations |
#5 | Marian Ilitch | $4.4 B | 88 | Little Caesars |
#6 | Johnelle Hunt | $4.1 B | 89 | Trucking |
#7 | Thai Lee | $4.1 B | 62 | IT Provider |
#8 | Lynda Resnick | $4.0 B | 78 | Agriculture |
#9 | Gail Miller | $3.2 B | 77 | Car dealerships |
#10 | Doris Fisher | $2.8 B | 90 | Gap |
#11 | Alice Schwartz | $3.0 B | 95 | Biotech |
#12 | Oprah Winfrey | $2.7 B | 67 | Media |
#13 | Elaine Wynn | $2.2 B | 79 | Casinos, hotels |
#14 | Peggy Cherng | $2.0 B | 73 | Fast food (Panda Express) |
#15 | Sheryl Sandberg | $1.9 B | 51 | |
#16 | Rihanna | $1.7 B | 33 | Cosmetics, music |
#17 | Jayshree Ullal | $1.7 B | 60 | Computer networking |
#18 | Safra Catz | $1.6 B | 59 | Software |
#19 | Jenny Just | $1.5 B | 53 | Fintech |
#20 | Eren Ozmen | $1.4 B | 62 | Aerospace |
Source: Forbes, as of Aug 2021 (latest available)
For those paying attention to the rapid rise of the fintech industry, Jenny Just’s entry on this list will come as no surprise. Her firm, Apex Fintech Solutions powers the trading technology behind companies like SoFi and eToro. In fact, she has started or bought 15 businesses in the space in just 24 years.
As the richest women in America continue to make great strides, this list could look very different in coming years.
Demographics
Visualizing Population Density Patterns in Six Countries
These maps show the population density of several countries, using 3D spikes to denote where more people live.

As of 2022, Earth has 8 billion humans. By 2050, the population is projected to grow to 10 billion.
In the last 50 years, the global population more than quadrupled. But none of this growth has been evenly spread out, including within countries.
This series of 3D maps from Terence Teo, an associate professor at Seton Hall University, renders the population density of six countries using open-source data from Kontur Population. He used popular programming language R and a path-tracing package, Rayshader, to create the maps.
France and Germany: Population Density Spikes and Troughs
Let’s take a look at how the population spreads out in different countries around the world. Click the images to explore higher-resolution versions.
France is the world’s 7th largest economy and second-most-populous country in the EU with 65 million people. But a staggering one-fifth of the French population lives in Paris and its surrounding metro—the most populous urban area in Europe.
Many residents in the Paris metropolitan area are employed in the service sector, which makes up one-third of France’s $2.78 trillion gross domestic product.
Unlike France, Germany has many dense cities and regions, with Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, and Cologne all having over a million residents. Berlin is the most populated at 3.5 million residents in the city proper, and 6 million in the wider urban area.
That said, the relatively recent reunification of West and East Germany in 1991 meant that post-WWII growth was mostly concentrated in West Germany (and West Berlin).
Italy and Chile: Coast to Coast
In Italy, another phenomenon affects population density and urban development—a sprawling coastline.
Despite having a large population of 59 million and large metropolitan areas throughout, Italy’s population spikes are closer to the water.
The port cities of Genoa, Napoli, and Palermo all have large spikes relative to the rest of the country, as does the capital, Rome. Despite its city center located 15 miles inland from the sea, it extends to the shore through the district of Ostia, where the ancient port of Rome existed.
Meanwhile in Chile, stuck between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, population spikes corroborate with its many port towns and cities.
However, the country is more concentrated than Italy, with 40% of its residents congregating around the capital of Santiago.
Turkey and Canada: Marred by Mountains and Climes
Though Chile has difficulties with terrain, it is relatively consistent. Other countries have to attempt to settle many different climes—regions defined by their climates.
Mountains to the south and east, a large, semi-arid plateau, and even a small desert leave few centers of urban growth in Türkiye.
Predictably, further west, as the elevation comes down to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, population spikes begin to heighten. The largest of course is the economic and cultural hub of Istanbul, though the capital Ankara is also prominent with more than 5 million residents.
In Canada, the Rocky Mountains to the west and freezing cold temperatures in the center and north account for the large country’s relative emptiness.
Though population spikes in Western Canada are growing rapidly, highly populous urban centers are noticeably concentrated along the St. Lawrence River, with the Greater Toronto Area accounting for more than one-sixth of the country’s 39 million people.
Increasing Urbanization
According to the World Bank, more than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, and that trend is only growing.
By 2050, 7 out of 10 people are projected to live in cities. This congregation makes cities a beehive of productivity and innovation—with more than 80% of the world’s GDP being generated at these population centers.
It’s in this context that mapping and studying urban development becomes all the more important, particularly as policymakers try their hand at sustainable urban planning.
As Teo puts it:
“By showing where people are (and are not), they show us where political and economic power is concentrated, and perhaps where and who our governments represent.”
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