As of April 2025, Elon Musk was estimated as the wealthiest person in the United States with a net worth of around 342 billion dollars. Richest people in the United States - additional information Every year since 1982, the American business magazine Forbes has been compiling lists of the 400 richest people in the United States, known as the “Forbes 400.” In addition to that, since 1987, the publication has also been compiling a ranking of the 500 richest people in the world (excluding royalty and dictators), as well as more specialized tops, such as “World's Most Powerful Women,” “America's Richest Families,” “Most Valuable Brands” or “30 Under 30,” which focuses on young entrepreneurs from various fields which have gained millions in the past year by the use of social media, technical innovations and generally new and fresh approaches to business.

Graph and download economic data for Households; Net Worth, Level (BOGZ1FL192090005Q) from Q4 1987 to Q1 2025 about net worth, Net, households, and USA.

In 2023, there were nearly 22 million people with a net worth of over one million U.S. dollars in the United States, which put the country on the top of the ranking. China was ranked second in that year, with more than six million individuals with wealth exceeding one million U.S. dollars. The United Kingdom followed in third with around three million millionaires.

Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Top 0.1% (99.9th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLTP1246) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

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 number of high net worth individuals in the biggest metropolitan areas of the United States in 2014. In 2014, the metropolitan area of New York had about 963 thousand high net worth individuals - individuals who hold at least 1 million U.S. dollars in financial assets - thus leading the ranking.

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.

Analysis of ‘World's Billionaires’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/seriadiallo1/world-billionaires on 14 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

The richest people in the world, yearly rank from 2002 to 2021

This dataset contains 200 rows and 7 columns.

The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the world's wealthiest billionaires compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine Forbes. The list was first published in March 1987. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists. This ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding and ranking against those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained. (wikipedia)

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

In 2023, Switzerland led the ranking of countries with the highest average wealth per adult, with approximately ******* U.S. dollars per person. Luxembourg was ranked second with an average wealth of around ******* U.S. dollars per adult, followed by Hong Kong SAR. However, the figures do not show the actual distribution of wealth. The Gini index shows wealth disparities in countries worldwide. Does wealth guarantee a longer life? As the old adage goes, “money can’t buy you happiness”, yet wealth and income are continuously correlated to the quality of life of individuals in different countries around the world. While greater levels of wealth may not guarantee a higher quality of life, it certainly increases an individual’s chances of having a longer one. Although they do not show the whole picture, life expectancy at birth is higher in the wealthier world regions. Does money bring happiness? A number of the world’s happiest nations also feature in the list of those countries for which average income was highest. Finland, however, which was the happiest country worldwide in 2022, is missing from the list of the top twenty countries with the highest wealth per adult. As such, the explanation for this may be the fact that the larger proportion of the population has access to a high income relative to global levels. Measures of quality of life Criticism of the use of income or wealth as a proxy for quality of life led to the creation of the United Nations’ Human Development Index. Although income is included within the index, it also has other factors taken into account, such as health and education. As such, the countries with the highest human development index can be correlated to those with the highest income levels. That said, none of the above measures seek to assess the physical and mental environmental impact of a high quality of life sourced through high incomes. The happy planet index demonstrates that the inclusion of experienced well-being and ecological footprint in place of income and other proxies for quality of life results in many of the world’s materially poorer nations being included in the happiest.

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.

The graph shows the ranking of the ten richest people in finance in 2024, by net worth, in billion of U.S. dollars. Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, led the ranking with a net worth of 133 billion U.S. dollars. It followed Michael Bloomberg, co-founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, with a net worth of 106 billion U.S. dollars. The only female on the list was Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, with a worth net of 29 billion U.S. dollars. The only non-American on the list is Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, with a net worth of 32.7 billion U.S. dollars.

United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Farmland, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets was 3.00000 Mil. of $ in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Farmland, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets reached a record high of 41.00000 in January of 2011 and a record low of -12.00000 in January of 2000. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Farmland, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Single Family Residential Mortgages, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets was -37.00000 Mil. of $ in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Single Family Residential Mortgages, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets reached a record high of 13725.00000 in October of 2009 and a record low of -281.00000 in July of 2019. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Single Family Residential Mortgages, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, To Finance Agricultural Production, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets was 19.00000 Mil. of $ in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, To Finance Agricultural Production, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets reached a record high of 116.00000 in January of 2010 and a record low of -28.00000 in July of 1987. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, To Finance Agricultural Production, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets was 17558.00000 Mil. of $ in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets reached a record high of 44785.00000 in January of 2010 and a record low of 1187.00000 in January of 1985. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on June of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, To Consumers, Other, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets (NCOALLCOT100B) from Q1 1985 to Q1 2025 about charge-offs, leases, Net, assets, loans, consumer, banks, depository institutions, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Asset Quality Measures, Net Charge-Offs on All Loans and Leases, Secured by Real Estate, Farmland, Booked in Domestic Offices, Banks Ranked 1st to 100th Largest in Size by Assets (NCOALLSFRET100B) from Q1 1991 to Q1 2025 about farmland, charge-offs, domestic offices, leases, real estate, securities, domestic, Net, assets, loans, banks, depository institutions, and USA.

In 2024, the Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu and his family had a fortune worth of 102 billion U.S. dollars and was thus the richest person in the country. The Helu family owns América Móvil, Latin America's biggest mobile telecom company.The second richest person in Mexico that year was German Larrea Velasco, who owns the majority of Mexico’s largest copper mining company, with a fortune of nearly 28 billion U.S. dollars.

The university in the United States with the largest endowment market value in 2024 was Harvard University, with an endowment fund value of about 51.98 billion U.S. dollars. U.S. higher education Colleges and universities in the United States rank highly among the world’s most prestigious institutions of higher education. Many universities are particularly well known for their strong research capabilities and their connections to many Nobel Prize winning laureates.The U.S. university system is largely decentralized. Except for service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities; public universities are administered solely by the individual states. Besides the state administered public universities, there are many private universities in the United States, most are non-profit institutions, similar to the public universities, but there are also a number of institutions that rely on profit (Walden University in Minnesota, for example).In general, tuition fees are required to be paid by students at American universities. Public universities generally charge lower tuition rates to in-state students, than to out-of-state students. Private universities are often much more expensive than public ones because they do not receive funding from state governments.American students are often required to take out student loans to supplement scholarships and grants provided by diverse sources to be able to pay for tuition. Student debt has become a major issue in the United States in recent years, with many Americans unsure if they can even afford to pay off their student loans in the future.

In 2024, two of the three richest people in Latin America were Mexicans. The leader of the rank was the Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, the 14th richest person in the world. Slim had a fortune of 102 billion U.S. dollars, derived from his multiple businesses and investments. At third place was a fellow Mexican businessman, German Larrea, with a fortune of nearly 27.3 billion dollars.

Billionaires' wealth distribution Within each country's economy, there exists a relatively small segment of wealthier individuals who contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of their respective countries. In Latin America, Chile stands out for its high concentration of wealth among billionaires, accounting for approximately 16 percent of the GDP. Mexico also exhibits a notable wealth concentration, with billionaires contributing around 12 percent of the country's GDP. Regarding the financial magnitude of these billionaires in Latin America, Mexico leads with an average individual wealth of approximately nine billion dollars, compared to an average wealth per adult of 43,140.
Income inequality In most countries within the region, the GINI Index, which measures income inequality among the population, falls within the range of 40 to 50. Notably, Colombia has the highest level of income inequality in Latin America, at 54.2. As a result of this income inequality, only around 2.8 percent of the population in the region is classified as having a high economic status, while the largest portion of the population consists of non-poor individuals with low incomes, and approximately 281 million people in the region live below the poverty line.