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.

Of the ***** billionaires in the world in 2023, one-third lived in North America. In total, more than ** percent of the world's billionaires were found in North America, Asia, or Europe.

The richest in 2022

Data source: https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

Cover image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/100-us-dollar-banknotes-3483098/

In the first quarter of 2025, almost ********** of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10 percent of earners. In comparison, the lowest ** percent of earners only owned *** percent of the total wealth. Income inequality in the U.S. Despite the idea that the United States is a country where hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps will inevitably lead to success, this is often not the case. In 2024, *** percent of U.S. households had an annual income under 15,000 U.S. dollars. With such a small percentage of people in the United States owning such a vast majority of the country’s wealth, the gap between the rich and poor in America remains stark. The top one percent The United States was the country with the most billionaires in the world in 2025. Elon Musk, with a net worth of *** billion U.S. dollars, was among the richest people in the United States in 2025. Over the past 50 years, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio has exploded, causing the gap between rich and poor to grow, with some economists theorizing that this gap is the largest it has been since right before the Great Depression.

In 2022, around ***** percent of all billionaires in the United States were female. In total, there were *** billionaires in the United States in that year.

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.

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 Q2 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

As of March 2024, California was the U.S. state with most billionaires, with *** billionaires calling the state home. New York was second, with *** resident billionaires.

About the Ranking

The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, 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 and other factors. 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 any ranking of those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.

Forbes Methodology

Each year, Forbes employs a team of over 50 reporters from a variety of countries to track the activity of the world's wealthiest individuals and sometimes groups or families – who share wealth. 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. 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 improve the estimate 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.

In 2023, there were around 748 billionaires in the United States. This was a slight increase from the previous year's total of 704, and a significant increase from the 66 billionaires in 1990.

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.

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. recently, 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 richest people in the world, only *** were women. 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 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.

A poll conducted in 2022 found that ** percent of Americans agreed that billionaires have a responsibility to better society and should give back more, and that billionaires are not doing enough with their fortunes to better our society.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 2024, there were nearly 24 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. France followed in third with around three million millionaires.

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