As of November 2022, a combined value of **** trillion U.S. dollars was held by billionaires living in the United States. While U.S. billionaire wealth has seen a drop over the last year, it is still more than *** times the amount it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of August 2024, a combined value of 856 billion U.S. dollars was held by the top five wealthiest billionaires in the United States. According to the source, the five wealthiest billionaires were Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett.

Graph and download economic data for Share of Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBST01134) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

Billionaires with a net worth over 50 billion U.S. dollars had a combined net worth of nearly two trillion dollars in 2023. Billionaires with a fortune of two to five billion U.S. dollars had the highest combined total wealth, nearly reaching three trillion U.S. dollars. That year, there were 18 persons with a fortune of over 50 billion dollars.

In 2023, ** of the ***** billionaires worldwide had assets amounting to more than ** billion U.S. dollars. On the other hand, almost ***** had a fortune between one and two billion dollars. As of March 2025, Elon Musk was the richest person in the world.

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2025, the United States housed the highest number of billionaires worldwide in 2025. In detail, there were *** billionaires living in the United States as of January that year. By comparison, *** billionaires resided in China. India, the United Kingdom, and Germany were also the homes of a significant number of billionaires that year. United States has regained its first place As the founder and exporter of consumer capitalism, it is no surprise that the United States is home to a large number of billionaires. Although China had briefly overtaken the U.S. in recent years, the United States has reclaimed its position as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Moreover, North America leads the way in terms of the highest number of ultra high net worth individuals – those with a net worth of more than ***** million U.S. dollars. The prominence of Europe and North America is a reflection of the higher degree of economic development in those states. However, this may also change as China and other emerging economies continue developing. Female billionaires Moreover, the small proportion of female billionaires does little to counter critics claiming the global economy is dominated by an elite comprised mainly of men. On the list of the 20 richest people in the world, only one was a woman. Moreover, recent political discourse has put a great amount of attention on the wealth held by the super-rich with the wealth distribution of the global population being heavily unequal.

With a net worth of 342 billion U.S. dollars, Elon Musk, the cofounder of seven companies, such as electric car maker Tesla and the rocket producer SpaceX, was the wealthiest man in the world in March 2025. The wealthiest people in the world Marc Zuckerberg, the cofounder of Meta Platforms, came second with a wealth of 235.6 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos followed in third. All the 10 richest people in the world were men. Wealth distribution worldwide As of 2022, one percent of people held nearly half of the world's combined wealth. Moreover, 2.8 billion of the world's population hold a combined wealth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars, compared to 59 million people having a combined wealth of 1 billion dollars or more, underlining the vast inequalities around the world. Where do the most affluent people live? Most millionaires live in the United States, while Hong Konk was the city hosting the largest number of high net worth individuals worldwide. The country with the highest number of billionaires is China.

In 2023, the highest total wealth owned by the world's billionaires was found in North America, reaching five trillion U.S. dollars. This comes as no surprise as North America also is the world region with the highest number of billionaires. Europe was the region where the second largest amount of wealth was found in 2023.

The Gilded Age, taking place roughly from the 1870s until the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), was a period of unprecedented rapid economic growth in the United States. The economy of the U.S. was dominated in many sectors by large industrial monopolies, such as Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel, and American Tobacco. The owner-managers of these firms came to be known as the 'robber barons', as they were seen as exploiting their companies' dominant market positions in order to enrich themselves. To this day, they remain some of the wealthiest people in American history - when the historical fortunes are adjusted to 2006 U.S. dollars, the current fortunes of today's richest U.S. residents such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are still less than those of Rockefeller and Carnegie. The Sherman Act, passed by congress in 1890, banned monopolies that put unreasonable restrictions on trade. Combined with the end of the first era of globalization, brought on by the events of World War I, this marked the end of the era of dominance by large monopolies in the United States.

This statistic illustrates the total wealth of billionaires in Europe from 2016 to 2018, broken down by selected countries. It can be seen as of 2018, the total wealth of billionaires in Germany stood at a value of *** billion U.S. dollars, an decrease of approximately ** billion from the previous year. This made Germany the country in Europe with the highest billionaire wealth at that time. Russia and the Switzerland made up the rest of the top three, with *** billion U.S. dollars and *** billion U.S. dollars respectively in billionaire wealth as of 2018.

Looking at the average billionaire's wealth worldwide by asset allocation, a clear majority of the wealth among male billionaires was made up of public holdings. Banking and financing is the industry to which the highest share of male billionaires devote most of their time.

In 2023, roughly 1.49 billion adults worldwide had a net worth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars. By comparison, 58 million adults had a net worth of more than one million U.S. dollars in the same year. Wealth distribution The distribution of wealth is an indicator of economic inequality. The United Nations says that wealth includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. Wealth is not synonymous with income, however, because having a large income can be depleted if one has significant expenses. In 2023, nearly 1,700 billionaires had a total wealth between one to two billion U.S. dollars. Wealth worldwide China had the highest number of billionaires in 2023, with the United States following behind. That same year, New York had the most billionaires worldwide.

Nearly half of the 3,323 billionaires worldwide in 2023 were between 50 and 70 years old. Moreover, more than 40 percent were above 70 years, whereas around 10 percent were below 50 years. A clear majority of the world's billionaires are men.

Amongst the selected Latin American countries, Mexico registered the largest average wealth of billionaires, at 8.97 billion U.S dollars in 2020. By contrast, the rest of the adult population had an average wealth of 41,530 dollars. This represented a wealth ratio of billionaires/general population of 216,079:1. Nevertheless, it was Argentina the nation with the largest inequality in the distribution of wealth. Billionaires' wealth in this South American country was equal to 3.7 percent of the national GDP.

The highest number of billionaires in 2023 was found in North America, reaching over 1,100. They were closely followed by Europe and Asia, whereas the gap down to the other regions of the world was significant.

In 2023, by far the highest number of individuals with net assets of at least ** million U.S. dollars worldwide were residing in North America, reaching over ******* people. Asia recorded the second highest number of UHNWIs in the world with over ******* individuals.A small share owns vast sums of wealthThe vast majority of global wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people. Only *** percent of the global population owns assets worth more than *** million U.S. dollars. The richest people in the world are Elon Mask, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault. When it comes to women, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers led the ranking of the most affluent women worldwide. The wealth of over ** percent of UHNWIs was self-made. Where UHNWIs live and where they leave Unsurprisingly, as North America is the world region with the highest number of UHNWIs, the United States is the country with the highest UHNWI count. However, Hong Kong, special administrative (SAR) region in China, is the city with the highest number of UHNWIs. Nevertheless, China was the country that recorded the highest outflux of UHNWIs in 2022.

The statistic shows the distribution of U.S. millionaires in 2013, by race and ethnicity. As of 2013, about 76 percent of U.S. millionaires were White/Caucasian.

Additional information on racial income inequality

The issue of racial inequality in regards to income and wealth has been a problem through the entirety of the history of the United States. The statistic above demonstrates how the percentage of millionaires that identify as Black/African Americans is disproportionate to the share of the population overall. While the disproportionate number of millionaires demonstrates an undesirable degree of income inequality it is at the bottom of the wealth ladder within American society that the issue is most pressing. The overrepresentation of African Americans in contrast to the population in unemployment statistics are cause for concern on the part of the government and society as a whole. In 2014, nearly 25 percent of surveyed families who placed themselves in the income bracket of under ten thousand dollars identified as black.

The percentage of non-white female business owners perhaps demonstrates that barriers to wealth exist but are diminished in unison. As barriers to wealth generation are removed for women, similar barriers are also being broken to allow for greater equality in the economic opportunities offered across the population of the United States. A central issue for policy makers is the time delay associated with policies aimed at reversing these inequalities. This was reflected in the 2015 Democratic and Republican presidential primary campaigns. Despite many major candidates discussing the issue none put forward meaningful proposals to address the problem. Even Senator Bernie Sanders who made addressing income inequality the cornerstone failed to separate the issue from income inequality generally. However, the global attention gained by movements such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ shows issues of racial inequality are prominent in the discourse of sections of the wider population if not forming a cornerstone of the political discourse in the United States.

The number of billionaires in Pakistan is forecast to reach **** in 2026. In 2016, there were just ***** individuals whose net worth exceeded *** billion U.S. dollars in Pakistan.

Leading billionaire cities

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2022, Beijing had the most billionaires in 2022. In total, *** billionaires lived in China's capital. Furthermore, *** billionaires resided in Shanghai, while *** were in New York. Many of the world's billionaires are concentrated in a few megacities. A look at the primary industries of billionaires globally helps to explain the importance of traditional global business capitals such as New York, London, and Hong Kong. The inclusion of Chinese cities on the list can be explained partly by the country's industrial conglomerates' strong performance in recent years.

The effect of ******** on the wealth of billionaires

Elon Musk was the billionaire whose fortune grew the most due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From September 2019 to September 2022, Elon Musk increased his net worth by ***** billion US dollars. Google’s Larry Page added the second highest value to his net worth during the period under consideration, with an increase of **** billion dollars. In contrast, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth decreased by nearly ** billion US dollars during the same time.

As of September 2023, Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos was the world's richest internet billionaire, with an estimated net worth of 114 billion U.S. dollars. The chief technology officer of the computer software company Oracle, Larry Ellison, ranked second, with a fortune of 107 billion U.S. dollars. Bill Gates, the co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, ranked third in the ranking of internet billionaires, with a net worth of 104 billion U.S. dollars.

Bright future for tech industry

Standing out as one of the most profitable and fastest-growing industries, the tech sector's future looks bright as global spend is forecasted to rise annually until at least 2023, hitting nearly 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars that year. Most of this will come from investment in communication services, followed by IT services. In the aftermath of the global coronavirus pandemic, the software industry was also one of the more resilient tech branches, with approximately 6.6 percent growth forecast in October 2021, second only to the PC/Tablet category.

Amazon and Alphabet are top market players

In the realm of software, Amazon and Alphabet currently top the list of largest internet companies in the world by market capitalization. Starting in 1994 as an online bookstore, the internet giant founded by Jeff Bezos has since grown to offer grocery services, media streaming, e-books and smart home technology, among other products, and is now a leading e-commerce platform worldwide. Meanwhile, Alphabet, the Google brand's parent company, has also risen to be one of the most prominent players on the internet, primarily due partly to noteworthy acquisitions such as YouTube and the Android operating system, which now powers over 70 percent of the world's mobile devices.

As of January 2024, Zhong Shanshan topped the list of the richest people in China with a net worth of 63 billion U.S. dollars. Huang Zheng, founder of Pinduoduo, and Ma Huateng, founder of the IT giant Tencent, came in second and third respectively, while Ma Yun, founder of the IT giant Alibaba, fell back to the tenth place.

Ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in China

Net worth refers to the amount of value by which an individual’s assets exceed their liabilities. It is usually cited to demonstrate the economic position of a person. Following China’s extensive economic development over the past two decades, the number of wealthy people had been rapidly growing as well. According to Hurun Research Institute, Greater China was the region with the largest number of billionaires worldwide as of 2024, with a total number of 814 billionaires. As of January 2022, the number of millionaires had amounted to approximately 20,400 people in Beijing alone. Unsurprisingly, the majority of high-net worth individuals lives in one of the four first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Chinese billionaire's sources of wealth

Chinese millionaires have accumulated their wealth primarily as private entrepreneurs. Most of the people listed among the 20 wealthiest Chinese in 2024 had owned their own companies. Zhong Shanshan, who topped the list of richest people in China in 2024, has made his fortune as founder of the beverage company Nongfu Spring.