Money

The Richest People in the World in 2024

Published

2 months ago

February 21, 2024

Niccolo Conte

Article/Editing:

Bruno Venditti

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

The Richest People in the World in 2024

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.

The combined wealth of the 10 richest individuals in the world amounts to $1.44 trillion.

Using data from Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, we provide a snapshot of the richest people in the world as of February 2024.

Bernard Arnault Ahead of Elon Musk

Bernard Arnault overtook Elon Musk as the richest person in 2024 due to a 21% decline in Musk’s wealth, from $245.3 billion to $194.6 billion.

The billionaire chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods company LVMH runs dozens of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co. The French businessman also has investments in businesses such as Netflix and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Source	Country
1	Bernard Arnault & family	$212.1B	LVMH	🇫🇷 France
2	Elon Musk	$194.6B	Tesla, SpaceX	🇺🇸 United States
3	Jeff Bezos	$192.4B	Amazon	🇺🇸 United States
4	Mark Zuckerberg	$161.8B	Facebook	🇺🇸 United States
5	Larry Ellison	$144.0B	Oracle	🇺🇸 United States
6	Warren Buffett	$128.7B	Berkshire Hathaway	🇺🇸 United States
7	Bill Gates	$123.1B	Microsoft	🇺🇸 United States
8	Larry Page	$120.3B	Google	🇺🇸 United States
9	Steve Ballmer	$119.2B	Microsoft	🇺🇸 United States
10	Sergey Brin	$115.4B	Google	🇺🇸 United States

The cumulative net worth of the top five richest individuals grew 4% in 2023, to $904.9 billion.

Among women, the richest person, L’Oréal’s Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, saw her fortune grow by $1.2 billion in 2023.

In China, Zhong Shanshan, the chairman and founder of bottled water and beverage producer Nongfu Spring, remains the country’s richest person with a net worth of $60.5 billion.

In India, the list is topped by Mukesh Ambani. The chairman of Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom, retail, and financial services, has a $102.1 billion fortune.

How Fortunes Have Changed

Just as in 2023, Mark Zuckerberg saw the most significant growth in his fortune among the top 10 richest individuals. The Facebook co-founder’s net worth surged by over $45 billion by February 2024 compared to November 2023, after Meta’s latest results far exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, sending its shares up.

Zuckerberg’s net worth growth of 39% moved him from 7th to 4th, overtaking Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison.

A list of the top 10 richest people in the world in 2024.

Meanwhile, Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief technology officer and former CEO, saw his net worth retreat by $3 billion after the company reported disappointing revenue in 2023.

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Economy

Ranked: The Top 20 Countries in Debt to China

The 20 nations featured in this graphic each owe billions in debt to China, posing concerns for their economic future.

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2024

Marcus Lu

Ranked: The Top 20 Countries in Debt to China

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.

In this graphic, we ranked the top 20 countries by their amount of debt to China. These figures are as of 2022, and come from the World Bank (accessed via Yahoo Finance).

The data used to make this graphic can be found in the table below.

Country	Total external debt to China ($B)
🇵🇰 Pakistan	$26.6
🇦🇴 Angola	$21.0
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	$8.9
🇪🇹 Ethiopia	$6.8
🇰🇪 Kenya	$6.7
🇧🇩 Bangladesh	$6.1
🇿🇲 Zambia	$6.1
🇱🇦 Laos	$5.3
🇪🇬 Egypt	$5.2
🇳🇬 Nigeria	$4.3
🇪🇨 Ecuador	$4.1
🇰🇭 Cambodia	$4.0
🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire	$3.9
🇧🇾 Belarus	$3.9
🇨🇲 Cameroon	$3.8
🇧🇷 Brazil	$3.4
🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo	$3.4
🇿🇦 South Africa	$3.4
🇲🇳 Mongolia	$3.0
🇦🇷 Argentina	$2.9

This dataset highlights Pakistan and Angola as having the largest debts to China by a wide margin. Both countries have taken billions in loans from China for various infrastructure and energy projects.

Critically, both countries have also struggled to manage their debt burdens. In February 2024, China extended the maturity of a $2 billion loan to Pakistan.

Soon after in March 2024, Angola negotiated a lower monthly debt payment with its biggest Chinese creditor, China Development Bank (CDB).

Could China be in Trouble?

China has provided developing countries with over $1 trillion in committed funding through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive economic development project aimed at enhancing trade between China and countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Many believe that this lending spree could be an issue in the near future.

According to a 2023 report by AidData, 80% of these loans involve countries in financial distress, raising concerns about whether participating nations will ever be able to repay their debts.

While China claims the BRI is a driver of global development, critics in the West have long warned that the BRI employs debt-trap diplomacy, a tactic where one country uses loans to gain influence over another.

Editor’s note: The debt shown in this visualization focuses only on direct external debt, and does not include publicly-traded, liquid, debt securities like bonds. Furthermore, it’s worth noting the World Bank data excludes some countries with data accuracy or reporting issues, such as Venezuela.