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.

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.

Dabid Thomson and family had a total net worth of 48.8 billion U.S. dollars, representing the richest in Canada in 2022. Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and executive chairman of Binance, is the second richest person in Canada, with a net worth of 17.4 U.S. dollars.

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.

As of March 2025, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and X (previously known as Twitter), was the richest person in the global tech industry with an estimated net worth of 312 billion U.S. dollars. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, followed with a net worth of 217 billion U.S. dollars. Elon Musk and Twitter/X On October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk bought the social network Twitter for around 44 billion U.S. dollars and became its CEO. Since Musk’s acquisition, the company has experienced some adjustments, including a name change to X and the option for users of becoming verified members for eight U.S. dollars per month. Moreover, there has been reports of increasing hate speech and the platform after Musk's takeover. Other tech billionaires and their companies Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft ranked 5th. Today, Microsoft develops consumer and enterprise software, services, and consumer electronics. In its 2023 financial year, Microsoft generated revenues of just under 212 billion U.S. dollars. By contrast, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, ranked third. The company, previously known as Facebook, was rebranded in 2021 and its products include Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Despite their wealth, these companies are not immune to the layoffs that have plagued the tech industry, which are affecting Meta and Amazon employees the most.

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.

In 2024, Lőrincz Mészáros was the wealthiest Hungarian, with an estimated net worth of over 1.2 trillion forints. Sándor Csányi was the second-richest person in the country, with an estimated net worth of 685 billion forints. Companies and industries behind the richest Sándor Csányi is the CEO of OTP Bank, the leading Hungarian company based on its market capitalization, which reached nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. MPF Holding is a multinational manufacturing company with a profile in the production of heating devices and building materials. Zsolt Felcsuti is a key person at MPF Holding, being the major shareholder in the company. In 2022, MPF Holding was the most successful family business in Hungary with an estimated value of nearly 402 billion forints, around 1.1 billion U.S. dollars. The richest people in a worldwide perspective However, none of this comes close to the net worth of the world’s leading billionaires. In 2023, the richest man was Elon Musk with a net worth of 242.7 billion U.S. dollars. Bernard Arnault, the owner of multiple luxury brands comes second, with a net worth of 226 billion U.S. dollars. The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos ranks third with a net worth of 149.8 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, the richest Hungarian, Csányi accounts for “only” around six percent of Musk’s net worth.

In 2022, Giovanni Ferrero, Executive Chairman of the Italian confectionary company Ferrero S.p.A., ranked first in the yearly ranking of Italian billionaires, published by the American business magazine Forbes. With a total net worth estimated at 34.1 billion U.S. dollars, Giovanni Ferrero ranked ahead another Italian entrepreneur - Giorgio Armani, the founder of luxury company, Armani, whose fortune amounted to 6.6 billion U.S. dollars.

A giant in the food industry

The name Ferrero is known worldwide for an enormous amount of branded chocolate and confectionery products. The company was founded in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero, father of Giovanni Ferrero. Ferrero S.p.A. has its headquarters in Piedmont, in the North of Italy, but their products have a strong presence all over the world. The estimated global market share of Ferrero is around 9.5 percent, fourth only to Mars, Mondalez International, and Nestlé.

Italian entrepreneur among the richest persons in the world

When compared to the global ranking of billionaires, the Italian businessman ranked 39th. In fact, Italy ranks among the countries with the largest number of billionaires in the world. In 2021, the title of the richest man on the planet went to Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. The net worth of this Albuquerque-born entrepreneur was 189 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. The second place was achieved by one of the most visionary businessmen, Elon Musk, whose fortune was estimated at 182 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

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.

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.

Dieter Schwarz, according to Forbes, was the wealthiest person in Germany as of 2025, with assets amounting to around 38.5 billion U.S. dollars. Dieter Schwarz is the owner of the Schwarz Gruppe, which owns both the supermarket chains Kaufland and Lidl. Klaus-Michael Kühne follows in second place. Among other things, he is the majority owner of the logistics company Kühne + Nagel International AG. Who are the richest people in Germany? Dieter Schwarz is the owner of the Schwarz Gruppe, which owns both the supermarket chains Kaufland and Lidl. In 2023, the Schwarz Gruppe recorded around 56.55 million euros in revenue. Karl Albrecht Jr. is the owner of the popular discount grocery store chain Aldi Süd. As of 2023, there were over 2,000 Aldi Süd stores in Germany. This, of course, does not include all the stores in other countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia, just to name a few. German salaries Germany currently has the highest GDP in Europe. However, this does not mean that everyone in Germany is a billionaire. The average salary is, in fact, around 48,380 euros. Although the trend is that German salaries have been on the rise since 2000, there has been a dip since 2019. This is probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflation of 2022.

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.

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.

As of June 2022, Nassef Sawiris, with a net worth of 7.3 billion U.S. dollars, is the richest man in Egypt, fourth richest in the African continent, and ranked 292 in the world. His sibling Naguib Sawiris ranked second, with a net worth of 3.4 billion U.S. dollars. Their father, Onsi Sawiris, who passed away in June 2021, founded Orascom Construction PLC, which he then passed on to his son Nassef. Four other Egyptian billionaires followed, with three of them belonging to the same family; Mansour. They have a combined net worth of 5.1 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, their family business, Mansour group, works in several industries, mainly the automotive industry. It is a General Motors dealer and owns several other franchises.

Orascom in the market since 1950

Born in a Coptic family in the South of Egypt (Upper Egypt), Onsi Sawiris started his construction career in 1950. Soon after, the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser assumed power nationalizing the company 10 years later and preventing him from leaving the country for a few years. He was later allowed to leave for Libya returning in President Anwar Sadat’s time in office, establishing Orascom Onsi Sawiris & Co. In 1995, the company was transferred to his son Nassef. As of the fiscal year ending 2020, the total revenue of Orascom construction reached 3.37 billion U.S. dollars with an increment of 5.87 percent year-on-year.

Concentrated wealth in the continent

Among the 20 wealthiest individuals in the African continent, 14 were from Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. The wealthiest individual in Africa was the Nigerian Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group. He was followed by Nicky Oppenheimer and his family and Johann Rupert and his family who were from South Africa. Nassef Sawiris, from Egypt, ranked fourth. This followed the same ranking in terms of the countries with the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the continent. Furthermore, by reviewing the overall private wealth in Africa, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Cairo, and Lagos rank among the cities with the highest private wealth.

This statistic shows the search engines that were used most often by people from affluent American households in the U.S. in the past month as of 2022. The results only show the high income households. In 2022, ** percent of respondents who stated their income was high said they used AOL.

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.

Of the ***** billionaires in the world in 2023, only *** were women, meaning ** percent. Whereas male billionaires tend to be self-made, nearly ** percent of the female billionaires in 2023 had inherited their fortune.

Ukrainian billionaire and businessman Rinat Akhmetov ranked as the wealthiest person in Ukraine with total assets of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars as of December 2022. Oligarchs Max Lytvyn and Alex Shevchenko, two of Grammarly's founders, followed with 2.3 billion U.S. dollars each.

The arrest of FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas in December 2022 - over charges of conspiracy and defrauding investors - made headlines worldwide. Less than a year before that, and before the crypto market suffered a two trillion-dollar crash, Bankman-Fried was the second richest crypto billionaire on the planet, with a fortune of 24 billion U.S. dollars.

Binance: clinging to top, bouncing between legal issues and coin drops
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao was the richest crypto boss before and after the market crash - and was also the one who suffered the highest losses. The world's leading crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance is reportedly being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged money laundering violations. In December 2022, Binance temporarily halted withdrawals of Stablecoin USDC - a digital stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. This came after the crypto exchange witnessed a flurry of withdrawals amounting to a total of 1.9 billion dollars in 24 hours, and as it tried to reassure investors about the security of their holdings.

The crypto crash: a domino effect fueled by global uncertainty
Digital currencies lost two trillion dollars in value following their peak of three billion in November 2021, due to a combination of growing interest rates and inflation which drove investors to pull back from deemed risky assets. Bitcoin saw its value fall by more than half since its late 2021 peak, which in turn caused the whole crypto market to collapse. The subsequent downfall of FTX also contributed to wreaking havoc on the market.

As of August 2024, the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics Lee Jae-yong (Jay Y. Lee) was the wealthiest person in South Korea, with a net worth of about **** billion U.S. dollars. His net worth increased from *** billion U.S. dollars from the previous year when he rose from second to first place. Seo Jung-jin, the co-founder of Celltrion, followed with about *** billion dollars. Turbulent times for the wealthy Despite the country's economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19, South Korea’s wealthiest people lost a significant amount of their net worth because of the poorly performing stock market and a weakened currency. Lee Jae-yong overcame the shrinking demand for tech goods and ranked as the wealthiest South Korean, although his net worth the year before was more than *** billion dollars higher. The founder of Kakao, Kim Beom-su, had the same net worth as Lee Jae-yong in 2022. However, he only placed fourth in 2023, losing more than **** billion dollars in net worth within the year. In October 2022, Kakao faced public outrage and criticism because of a service outage. Conglomerates’ dominating position in the South Korean economy   Although the collective wealth of the ** wealthiest people in South Korea fell by about ** percent, conglomerates dominated the market. Samsung Electronics had the highest market capitalization among business groups listed in South Korea, amounting to about *** trillion South Korean won. The position of the largest businesses represented a significant hurdle for start-ups. South Korea had a low survival rate for new companies compared to the OECD average, discouraging the emergence of new businesses. When asked about the most critical challenges, small- and medium-sized business owners answered that increasing revenue and attracting customers were the most difficult.