The net worth of the world's billionaires increased from less than $1 trillion in 2000 to over $7 trillion in 2015
The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of the world's wealthiest
billionaires compiled and published every March by the
American business magazine
Forbes. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated, in
United States dollars, based on their assets and accounting for debt.
Royalty and
dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists.
[1] The list has been published annually in March since 1987.
[2]
In 2017, there was a record of 2,043 people on the list, which is the first time over 2,000 people were listed, that included 195 newcomers that include 76 from
China and 25 from the U.S.; there were 56 people under 40 and it had a record of 227 women.
[3]The average net worth of the list came in at
US$3.75 billion, down
US$110 million from 2015. Added together, the total net worth for 2017's
billionaires was
US$7.67 trillion, up from
US$7.1 trillion in 2015.
[4][5] As of 2017,
Microsoft founder
Bill Gates has topped the list 18 of the past 23 years.
[4]
According to a 2017
Oxfam report, the top eight billionaires own as much combined wealth as "half the human race".
[6][7]
Methodology
Each year,
Forbes employs a team of more than fifty reporters from a variety of countries to track the activity of the world's wealthiest individuals.
[8] Preliminary surveys are sent to those who may qualify for the list. According to
Forbes, they received three types of responses – some people try to inflate their wealth, others cooperate but leave out details, and some refuse to answer any questions.
[9] Business deals are then scrutinized and estimates of valuable assets – land, homes, vehicles, artwork, etc. – are made. Interviews are conducted to vet the figures and get a better idea of an individual's holdings. Finally, positions in a publicly traded stock are priced to market on a date roughly a month before publication. Privately held companies are priced by the prevailing
price-to-sales or
price-to-earnings ratios. Known debt is subtracted from assets to get a final estimate of an individual's estimated worth in
United States dollars. Since stock prices fluctuate rapidly, an individual's true wealth and ranking at the time of publication may vary from their situation when the list was compiled.
[8]
Family fortunes dispersed over a large number of individuals are included only if those individuals' holdings are worth more than a billion dollars. However, when a living individual has dispersed his or her wealth to immediate family members, it is included under a single listing provided that individual is still living.
[8] Royalty and dictators are always excluded from the lists.
Annual rankings
Rankings are published annually in March, so the information listed are snapshot rankings of wealth at that time.
2017
On the 30th anniversary of in Forbes' list of the world's billionaires, for the fourth year in a row,
Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world.
[4] The number of billionaires increased 13% to 2,043 from 1,810 in 2016; this is the biggest change in over 30 years of tracking billionaires globally.
[4] This is the first time after 12 years that
Carlos Slim was not within the top five. The U.S. continues to have the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 565. China has 319 (this does not include
Hong Kongwith 67 and
Macau with 1), Germany has 114 and India has the fourth most with 101; India has reached over 100 billionaires for its first time.
2016
For the third year in a row,
Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world by Forbes's 2016 list of the world's billionaires.
[10] This is the 17th time that the founder of Microsoft has claimed the top spot.
Amancio Ortega rose from last year's position of number four to second.
[11] Warren Buffett of
Berkshire Hathaway came in third for the second consecutive time,
[12] while Mexican telecommunication mogul
Carlos Slim slipped down from last year's second position to fourth.
Jeff Bezos of
Amazon,
[13] Mark Zuckerberg of
Facebook[14] and
Michael Bloomberg of
Bloomberg L.P.,
[15] appear for the first time on the Forbes top 10 billionaires list, coming at fifth, sixth and eighth position, respectively. Zuckerberg became the youngest top 10 billionaire this year at the age of 31.
Larry Ellison,
Charles Koch and
David Koch also slipped down from their last year's positions, with Ellison dropping to seventh from fifth and the Kochs falling to ninth position from sixth, respectively.
