Many of us struggled through the worldwide pandemic. Jobs were shed and businesses collapsed. Meanwhile, most of the world’s richest people got even richer still.
86% of the world’s wealthiest people are richer than they were before the pandemic began. Overall, there were 2,755 billionaires listed, 660 more than the previous year. According to Forbes, their combined wealth is worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Randall Lane, Forbes Chief Content Officer said – “The very, very rich got very, very richer.”
Who’s on the Forbes billionaires list?
It is no surprise to find that the top two are Jeff Bezos, who Forbes list as having a personal fortune of $177 billion, and Elon Musk, lagging behind with a paltry $151 billion.
The third spot in the list goes to Bernard Arnault, the French fashion magnate who, along with his family, owns brands including Sephora and Louis Vuitton. The rest of the top ten looks like this.
4. Bill Gates (Microsoft)
5. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
6. Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)
7. Larry Ellison (Oracle)
8. Larry Page (Google)
9. Sergey Brin (Google)
10. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industry, India)
At number 12 on the list is the richest woman in the world, with a worth of $73.6 billion. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oréal.
Other notable names
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – The identical twins first come to prominence when they were portrayed in the film the Social Network. They have a worth of $3 billion, earnings that came from their cryptocurrency exchange platform, Gemini Exchange.
MacKenzie Scott – The ex-wife of Jeff Bezos is the third richest woman on the list. She has a net worth of $53 billion, despite giving away $5.8 billion in grants to non-profit organizations during the pandemic.
Kevin David Lehman – The 18-year-old who owns 50% of Germany’s largest drugstore chain, is the youngest on the list and has a net worth of $3.3 billion.
Kim Kardashian West – Kim is one of the 660 new faces on the list. The reality TV star is worth over $1 billion thanks to earnings from her cosmetic, shape wear, and gaming interests.
Where do they live?
The USA still tops the list of most billionaires with 724. However, the city with the most billionaires is Beijing. The Chinese capital has 100 billionaires, with 33 new members of the club making it onto this year’s list.
Overall, 25% of the world’s billionaires live in 10 cities and more than 10% live in Chinese Cities.
Every cloud has a silver lining
It is believed that at least 40 of the new billionaires on this year’s Forbes list got there because of involvement in companies leading the fight against Covid-19. Included are vaccine developers Stephane Bancel and Ugur Sahin of Moderna and BioNtech respectively. Others included in the list made their money from the manufacture and sales of personal prospective equipment, Covid-19 Testing, and developing software designed to schedule vaccination rollout programs.