The world of wealth has always undergone special changes amid the volatile global economy, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian war on Ukraine.
The list of the world’s richest people from Forbes, which reviews those whose wealth has increased or decreased, and who have left this year’s classification, showed that the number of billionaires around the world shrank for the second year in a row, from 2,668 in 2022 to 2,640 this year.
The total wealth of the 2,640 billionaires worldwide is estimated at $12.2 trillion. The total wealth of billionaires fell by about $500 billion, following turmoil in public and private investment markets. Forbes reported.
254 people lost the title of billionaire, such as Sam Bankman Fried, and Kanye West.
Only one person voluntarily left the billionaires club, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, after he gifted his company to a non-profit organization fighting environmental crises, in September 2022, to come off the list of wealthy people he had long criticized.
Wealthy people such as Spanish retail tycoon Amancio Ortega ($17.7B+), Chinese e-commerce tycoon Colin Qing Huang ($18.9B), and Indonesian coal billionaire Low Tuck Kwong ($21.8B+) made huge profits in 12 the past months.
Bernard Arnault topped the Forbes Rich List for the first time. He is also the first French citizen to head the list since its publication in 1987.
The number of classified Americans is more wealthy than the citizens of any other country or geographic region. The US dominates the list with 735 billionaires, followed by China with 495 billionaires, then India with 169 billionaires, and Germany with 126 billionaires.
150 new arrivals have joined the list for the first time this year, including basketball legend LeBron James ($1 billion), golfer Tiger Woods ($1.1 billion), and fashion world icon Tom Ford ($2.2 billion).
The average age of billionaires is 65. Insurance tycoon George Joseph (101) is reportedly the oldest ($1.3 billion).
No one has lost as much as Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, whose wealth is $57 billion lower than it was last year, due to a 38% decline in the e-commerce company’s share price. However, he remains the world’s third richest man with a wealth of $114 billion.
The majority of the rich are still men. Only 337 women appeared on the year’s list, an increase from 327 women on last year’s list, accounting for 13% this year, up from 12%.
The granddaughter of the founder of the cosmetics company L’Oréal, France’s Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, remains the richest woman in the world ($80.5 billion).
The self-made wealthy, who founded or co-founded their companies, or raised their own wealth and did not inherit it, make up about 69% of all billionaires on the list, compared to 71% last year.
33 billionaires died last year, including Dietrich Matešić, who co-founded Red Bull, Brazilian Lily Safra, heir to the banking empire, and Ted Lerner, a real estate mogul.