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The Richest Women in America in One Graphic

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Richest Women in America 23 Nov 2021

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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 overallNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Alice Walton$68.1 B72Walmart
#2MacKenzie Scott$56.1 B51Amazon
#3Julia Koch & family$52.2 B59Koch Industries
#4Jacqueline Mars$31.5 B82Candy, pet food
#5Miriam Adelson$29.2 B76Casinos
#6Abigail Johnson$26.2 B59Money management
#7Laurene Powell Jobs & family$16.7 B57Apple, Disney
#8Diane Hendricks$11.7 B74Roofing
#9Ann Walton Kroenke$9.3 B72Walmart
#10Blair Parry-Okeden$8.8 B71Media, 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.

OldestNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Alice Schwartz$3.0 B95Biotech
#2Wilma Tisch$1.4 B94Diversified
#3Doris Fisher$2.8 B90Gap
#4Johnelle Hunt$4.7 B89Trucking
#5Marian Ilitch$4.4 B88Little Caesars
#6Pauline MacMillan Keinath$8.5 B87Cargill
#7Margot Birmingham Perot$4.2 B87Computer services, real estate
#8Martha Ingram & family$3.9 B86Book distribution, transportation
#9Janice McNair$4.2 B85Energy, sports
#10Norma Lerner$1.1 B85Banking

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.

YoungestNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Whitney Wolfe Herd$1.2 B32Dating app
#2Rihanna$1.7 B33Cosmetics, music
#3Neha Narkhede$1.4 B37Software
#4Lynsi Snyder$4.2 B39In-N-Out Burger
#5Kim Kardashian West$1.2 B41Cosmetics, reality TV
#6Jane Lauder$6.7 B48Estée Lauder
#7Amy Wyss$2.0 B50Medical equipment
#8Sara Blakely$1.2 B50Spanx
#9MacKenzie Scott$56.1 B51Amazon
#10Aerin Lauder$4.2 B51Cosmetics

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-MadeNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Diane Hendricks$11.7 B74Roofing
#2Judy Faulkner$6.5 B77Health IT
#3Meg Whitman$6.3 B65eBay
#4Judy Love$5.2 B84Retail and gas stations
#5Marian Ilitch$4.4 B88Little Caesars
#6Johnelle Hunt$4.1 B89Trucking
#7Thai Lee$4.1 B62IT Provider
#8Lynda Resnick$4.0 B78Agriculture
#9Gail Miller$3.2 B77Car dealerships
#10Doris Fisher$2.8 B90Gap
#11Alice Schwartz$3.0 B95Biotech
#12Oprah Winfrey$2.7 B67Media
#13Elaine Wynn$2.2 B79Casinos, hotels
#14Peggy Cherng$2.0 B73Fast food (Panda Express)
#15Sheryl Sandberg$1.9 B51Facebook
#16Rihanna$1.7 B33Cosmetics, music
#17Jayshree Ullal$1.7 B60Computer networking
#18Safra Catz$1.6 B59Software
#19Jenny Just$1.5 B53Fintech
#20Eren Ozmen$1.4 B62Aerospace

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.

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Demographics

Charted: Retirement Age by Country

We chart current and effective retirement ages for 45 countries, revealing some stark regional differences.

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Charted: Retirement Age by Country

The retirement landscape can look completely different depending on what country you’re in. And charting the retirement age by country reveals a lot of differences in the the makeup of a labor force, both for economic and cultural reasons.

This graphic delves into the current and effective retirement ages across 45 nations in 2020, based on comprehensive data from the OECD 2021 report.

Defining Retirement Ages

Before we dive into the numbers, let’s clarify the measurements used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):

  • The current retirement age is the age at which individuals can retire without penalty to pension after completing a full career starting from age 22.
  • The effective retirement age refers to the average age of exit from the labor force for workers aged 40 years or more.

Many countries have seen workers effectively retire earlier or later than the current retirement age. This variance can arise due to a multitude in factors including differences in career start ages, some industries offering earlier retirements or benefits for later commitments, or countries facilitating different workforce exits due to market demands and policies.

Some people also choose to retire early due to personal reasons or a lack of available work, receiving a smaller pension or in some cases forgoing it entirely. Likewise, some people choose to stay employed if they are able to find work.

Retirement Age by Country in 2020

Here’s a snapshot of the current and effective retirement ages by country in 2020:

CountryRetirement age
(Current)
Retirement age
(Effective)
Retirement age
(Women, Effective)
🇦🇹 Austria656261
🇧🇪 Belgium656160
🇨🇦 Canada656463
🇨🇱 Chile656561
🇨🇴 Colombia626760
🇨🇷 Costa Rica626762
🇨🇿 Czech Republic646362
🇩🇰 Denmark6664N/A
🇪🇪 Estonia646465
🇫🇮 Finland656364
🇫🇷 France656061
🇩🇪 Germany6663N/A
🇬🇷 Greece626158
🇭🇺 Hungary656260
🇮🇸 Iceland676664
🇮🇪 Ireland6664N/A
🇮🇱 Israel6765N/A
🇮🇹 Italy626261
🇯🇵 Japan656867
🇰🇷 Korea, Republic of626665
🇱🇻 Latvia646665
🇱🇹 Lithuania6463N/A
🇱🇺 Luxembourg625960
🇲🇽 Mexico656663
🇳🇱 Netherlands666463
🇳🇿 New Zealand656866
🇳🇴 Norway676563
🇵🇱 Poland656260
🇵🇹 Portugal656563
🇸🇰 Slovakia6360N/A
🇸🇮 Slovenia626261
🇪🇸 Spain656160
🇸🇪 Sweden656665
🇨🇭 Switzerland656564
🇹🇷 Türkiye526159
🇬🇧 United Kingdom666463
🇺🇸 United States6665N/A
🇪🇺 European Union (Average)6463N/A
🇦🇷 Argentina656263
🇧🇷 Brazil626259
🇨🇳 China (People's Republic of)606661
🇮🇳 India5867N/A
🇮🇩 Indonesia5769N/A
🇷🇺 Russia626260
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia4759N/A
🇿🇦 South Africa606056

Three countries had the highest current retirement age at 67 years, Iceland, Israel, and Norway, but all had slightly lower effective retirement ages on average. On the flip side, Saudi Arabia had the lowest current retirement age at only 47 years with full pension benefits. Only Türkiye at 52 years was close, and notably both had much higher effective retirement ages on average.

Discrepancies between different regions are clear across the board. Many Asian countries including China, India, and South Korea have official minimum retirement ages in the early 60s and late 50s, but see workers stay in the workforce well into their late 60s. Meanwhile, most European countries as well as the U.S. and Canada have more workers retire earlier than minimum retirement ages on average.

Almost all of the countries with measured effective retirement ages for women also saw them exit the workforce earlier than men. This can be the result of cultural gender norms, labor force participation rates, and even the setup of pension systems in different countries.

The five exceptions in the dataset where women retired later than men? Argentina, Estonia, Finland, France, and Luxembourg.

Looking to the Future

In 2023, France sparked controversy by raising its early retirement age by two years. This decision triggered widespread strikes and riots and ignited debates about the balance between economic sustainability and individual well-being.

Given aging demographics in many developed countries and a continued need for labor, this isn’t expected to be the only country to reassess retirement. The OECD projects a two-year increase in the average effective retirement age by the mid-2060s.

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