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Ranked: The World’s Richest Families in 2020

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The World's Richest Families in 2020

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The World’s Richest Families in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t stopped the world’s wealthiest families from growing their fortunes. Over the past year, the richest family—the Waltons—grew their wealth by $25 billion, or almost $3 million per hour.

This graphic, using data from Bloomberg, ranks the 25 most wealthy families in the world. The data excludes first-generation wealth and wealth controlled by a single heir, which is why you don’t see Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates on the list. Families whose source of wealth is too diffused or opaque to be valued are also excluded.

The Full Breakdown

Intergenerational wealth is a powerful thing. It often prevails through market crashes, social turmoil, and economic uncertainty, and this year has been no exception.

Here’s a look at the 25 most wealthy families in 2020:

RankNameCompanyWealth, $BSectorLocation
1WaltonWalmart215Consumer services🇺🇸 Bentonville, Arkansas
2MarsMars120Consumer goods🇺🇸 McLean, Virginia
3KochKoch Industries109.7Industrials🇺🇸 Wichita, Kansas
4Al SaudN/A95Industrials🇸🇦 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
5AmbaniReliance Industries81.3Industrials🇮🇳 Mumbai, India
6HermèsHermès63.9Consumer services🇫🇷 Paris, France
7WertheimerChanel54.4Consumer services🇫🇷 Paris, France
8Johnson (Fidelity)Fidelity Investments46.3Financials🇺🇸 Boston, New York
9Boehringer, Von BaumbachBoehringer Ingelheim45.7Health care🇩🇪 Inglheim, Germany
10AlbrechtAldi41Consumer services🇩🇪 Rhineland, Germany
11ThomsonThomson Reuters40.6Communication🇨🇦 Ontario, Canada
12Hoffmann, OeriRoche38.8Health care🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland
13MulliezAuchan38.4Consumer services🇫🇷 Lille, France
14Cargill, MacMillanCargill38.1Industrials🇺🇸 Minneapolis, Minnesota
15Johnson (SC)SC Johnson37.3Consumer services🇺🇸 Racine, Wisconsin
16Van Damme, De Spoelberch, De MeviusAnheuser-Busch InBev36.8Consumer goods🇧🇪 Belgium
17QuandtBMW34.7Consumer services🇩🇪 Munich, Germany
18CoxCox Enterprises33.1Communication 🇺🇸 Atlanta, Georgia
19RausingTetra Laval32.9Materials🇬🇧 London, England
20NewhouseAdvance Publications31Communication🇺🇸 New York, New York
21ChearavanontCharoen Pokphand Group30.7Diversified🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand
22FerreroFerrero30.5Consumer goods🇮🇹 Alba, Italy
23KwokSun Hung Kai Properties30.4Real estate🇭🇰 Hong Kong
24PritzkerHyatt Hotels29.6Consumer services🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois
25LeeSamsung29Diversified🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea

*Note: The Al Saud’s net worth is based on cumulative payouts royal family members were estimated to have received over the past 50 years.

The Waltons are the richest family on the list by far, with a net worth of $215 billion—that’s $95 billion more than the second wealthiest family. Sam Walton, the family’s patriarch, founded Walmart in 1962. Since then, it’s become the world’s largest retailer by revenue.

When Sam passed away in 1992, his three children—James, Alice, and Rob—inherited his fortune. Now, the trio co-owns about half of Walmart.

In second place is the Mars family, with a net worth of $120 billion. The family is well-known for their candy empire, but interestingly, about half of the company’s value comes from pet care holdings. Mars Inc. owns several popular pet food brands, including Pedigree, Cesar, and Royal Canin—and it expanded its pet presence further in 2017 when it acquired VCA, a company with almost 800 small animal vet hospitals across the U.S. and Canada.

The Koch family is the world’s third-richest family. Their fortune is rooted in an oil firm founded by Fred C. Koch. Following Fred’s death in 1967, the firm was inherited by his four sons—Frederick, Charles, David, and William. After a family feud, Frederick and William left the business, and Charles and David went on to build the mega industrial conglomerate known as Koch Industries.

Despite being affected by the oil crash this year, the Koch family’s wealth still sits at $109.7 billion. Before David’s passing in 2019, he and his brother Charles were heavily involved in politics—and their political efforts were the subject of much scrutiny.

Richest Families, by Sector

It’s important to note that many of these families have diversified their investments across a variety of industries. For instance, while the Koch family’s wealth is largely concentrated in the industrial sector and commodities, they also dabble in real-estate—in May 2020, they made a $200 million bet on U.S. rental homes.

That being said, it’s interesting to see where each of these families started, and which sectors have bred the highest number of ultra-wealthy families.

Here’s a breakdown of each sector and how many families on the list got started in them:

SectorNumber of FamiliesTotal Wealth, $B
Consumer Services8514.3
Industrials4324.1
Consumer Goods3187.3
Communications3104.7
Health Care284.5
Diversified259.7
Financials146.3
Basical Materials132.9
Real Estate130.4

The top sector is consumer services—8 of the 25 families are heavily involved in this sector. Walmart helped generate the most wealth out of families in this space, while luxury brands Hermès and Chanel were the source of fortune for the next two wealthiest families.

Industrial is the second largest sector, with 4 of the 25 families involved. It’s also one of the most lucrative sectors—out of the top five wealthiest families on the list, three are in industrials. The Koch family is the wealthiest family in this category, followed by the Al Saud family and the Ambani family, respectively.

Communications and consumer goods are tied for third, with 3 of the 25 families in each. The Thomsons, who founded Thomson Reuters, are the wealthiest family in communications, while the Mars family has the highest net worth in the consumer goods sector.

Resilient, but not Bulletproof

Despite a global recession, most of the world’s wealthiest families seem to be doing just fine—however, not everyone on the list has been thriving this year.

The Koch family’s fortune dropped by $15 billion from 2019 to 2020, and the current political climate in Hong Kong has had a negative impact on the Kwok family’s real estate empire.

While intergenerational wealth certainty has resilience, how much economic and social turmoil can it withstand? It’ll be interesting to see which families make the list in 2021.

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Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This graphic illustrates the amount of U.S. currency in circulation globally, by denomination, based on data from the Federal Reserve.

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Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

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.

Have you ever wondered how much U.S. currency is in circulation?

Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve submits a print order for U.S. currency to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP will then print billions of notes in various denominations, from $1 bills to $100 bills.

In this graphic, we’ve used the latest Federal Reserve data to visualize the approximate number of bills for each denomination globally, as of Dec. 31, 2022.

Breakdown of U.S. Currency in Circulation

The following table lists all of the data we used to create the visualization above. Note that value figures were rounded for simplicity.

Type of BillNumber of notes
in circulation (billions)
Value ($B)
$114.3$14B
$21.5$3B
$53.5$18B
$102.3$23B
$2011.5$230B
$502.5$125B
$10018.5$1,850B
$500-10,000*0.0004n/a

*$500-10,000 bills are listed as a range, and a total circulation of 0.0004 billion. Not included in graphic.

From these numbers, we can see that $100 bills are the most common bill in circulation, even ahead of $1 bills.

One reason for this is $100 bills have a longer lifespan than smaller denominations, due to people using $100 bills less often for transactions. Some businesses may also decline $100 bills as payment.

Based on 2018 estimates from the Federal Reserve, a $100 bill has a lifespan of over 20 years, which is significantly higher than $1 bills (7 years) and $5 bills (5 years).

If you’re interested in more visualizations on the U.S. dollar, consider this animated chart which shows how the dollar overtook the British pound as the world’s most prominent reserve currency.

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