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 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 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and five are in Asia, alongside the U.S. and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

Guyana was the South American country 20360the highest gross national income per capita, with 20,360 U.S. dollars per person in 2023. Uruguay ranked second, registering a GNI of 19,530 U.S. dollars per person, based on current prices. Gross national income (GNI) is the aggregated sum of the value added by residents in an economy, plus net taxes (minus subsidies) and net receipts of primary income from abroad. Which are the largest Latin American economies? Based on annual gross domestic product, which is the total amount of goods and services produced in a country per year, Brazil leads the regional ranking, followed by Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Many Caribbean countries and territories hold the highest GDP per capita in this region, measurement that reflects how GDP would be divided if it was perfectly equally distributed among the population. GNI per capita is, however, a more exact calculation of wealth than GDP per capita, as it takes into consideration taxes paid and income receipts from abroad. How much inequality is there in Latin America? In many Latin American countries, more than half the total wealth created in their economies is held by the richest 20 percent of the population. When a small share of the population concentrates most of the wealth, millions of people don't have enough to make ends meet. For instance, in Brazil, about 5.32 percent of the population lives on less than 3.2 U.S. dollars per day.

The average for 2023 based on 183 countries was 26826 U.S. dollars. The highest value was in Luxembourg: 130491 U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in Burundi: 829 U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1990 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2025, the city with the highest number of billionaires in 2025 was New York. In detail, *** billionaires resided in the American city. Furthermore, ** billionaires lived in London, while Shanghai had a billionaire population of ** individuals. New York was the only city in the world with more than 100 billionaires that year. Mega-cities of the world A large number of the world’s billionaires are concentrated in a select number of the world’s mega-cities. This has as much to do with the location of their wealth, business interests, and further earning potential, as does the quality of life in those cities. A look at the most significant industries in the global billionaire production line helps to explain the prominence of the traditional capitals of global business including New York, London and Hong Kong. The place of many Chinese cities on the list can in part be explained by the strong performance of industrial conglomerates from the country in recent years. Economic growth in China While New York is the city with the highest number of billionaires, China now boasts the most billionaires of any country in the world. However, ***** of the top ten wealthiest billionaires still came from the United States as of 2025.

Taking five Anglo-Saxon countries that have relatively similar backgrounds and tax systems – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US – we see that the shares of the very richest exhibit a strikingly similar pattern, falling in the three decades after World War II, before rising sharply from the mid-1970s onwards. The share of the top 1 percent is highly correlated across Anglo-Saxon countries, more so than with the share of the next 4 percent. Controlling for country and year fixed effects, we find that a reduction in the marginal tax rate on wage income is associated with an increase in the share of the top percentile group. Likewise, a fall in the marginal tax rate on investment income (based on a lagged moving average) is associated with a rise in the share of the top percentile group.

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.

Associated with manuscript titled: Fifty Muslim-majority countries have fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths than the 50 richest non-Muslim countriesThe objective of this research was to determine the difference in the total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths between Muslim-majority and non-Muslim countries, and investigate reasons for the disparities. Methods: The 50 Muslim-majority countries had more than 50.0% Muslims with an average of 87.5%. The non-Muslim country sample consisted of 50 countries with the highest GDP while omitting any Muslim-majority countries listed. The non-Muslim countries’ average percentage of Muslims was 4.7%. Data pulled on September 18, 2020 included the percentage of Muslim population per country by World Population Review15 and GDP per country, population count, and total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths by Worldometers.16 The data set was transferred via an Excel spreadsheet on September 23, 2020 and analyzed. To measure COVID-19’s incidence in the countries, three different Average Treatment Methods (ATE) were used to validate the results. Results published as a preprint at https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/84zq5(15) Muslim Majority Countries 2020 [Internet]. Walnut (CA): World Population Review. 2020- [Cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/muslim-majority-countries (16) Worldometers.info. Worldometer. Dover (DE): Worldometer; 2020 [cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldometers.info

This dataset provides values for GDP PER CAPITA reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

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.

Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Bottom 50% (1st to 50th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLB50107) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

19 of the 20 countries with the lowest estimated GDP per capita in the world in 2024 are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Sudan is believed to have a GDP per capita of just 351.02 U.S. dollars - for reference, Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita in the world, at almost 130,000 U.S. dollars, which is around 400 times larger than that of Burundi (U.S. GDP per capita is over 250 times higher than Burundi's). Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa Many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have been among the most impoverished in the world for over a century, due to lacking nutritional and sanitation infrastructures, persistent conflict, and political instability. These issues are also being exacerbated by climate change, where African nations are some of the most vulnerable in the world, as well as the population boom that will place over the 21st century. Of course, the entire population of Sub-Saharan Africa does not live in poverty, and countries in the southern part of the continent, as well as oil-producing states around the Gulf of Guinea, do have some pockets of significant wealth (especially in urban areas). However, while GDP per capita may be higher in these countries, wealth distribution is often very skewed, and GDP per capita figures are not representative of average living standards across the population. Outside of Africa Yemen is the only country outside of Africa to feature on the list, due to decades of civil war and instability. Yemen lags very far behind some of its neighboring Arab states, some of whom rank among the richest in the world due to their much larger energy sectors. Additionally, the IMF does not make estimates for Afghanistan, which would also likely feature on this list.

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.

In 2025, the United States had the largest economy in the world, with a gross domestic product of over 30 trillion U.S. dollars. China had the second largest economy, at around 19.23 trillion U.S. dollars. Recent adjustments in the list have seen Germany's economy overtake Japan's to become the third-largest in the world in 2023, while Brazil's economy moved ahead of Russia's in 2024. Global gross domestic product Global gross domestic product amounts to almost 110 trillion U.S. dollars, with the United States making up more than one-quarter of this figure alone. The 12 largest economies in the world include all Group of Seven (G7) economies, as well as the four largest BRICS economies. The U.S. has consistently had the world's largest economy since the interwar period, and while previous reports estimated it would be overtaken by China in the 2020s, more recent projections estimate the U.S. economy will remain the largest by a considerable margin going into the 2030s.The gross domestic product of a country is calculated by taking spending and trade into account, to show how much the country can produce in a certain amount of time, usually per year. It represents the value of all goods and services produced during that year. Those countries considered to have emerging or developing economies account for almost 60 percent of global gross domestic product, while advanced economies make up over 40 percent.

Iceland was the country with the highest rate of millionaires worldwide in 2022, with more than ***percent of the adult population owning assets worth more than one million U.S. dollars. Luxembourg followed behind with ** percent of the population being millionaires, with Switzerland in third.

This statistic shows the top ten cities in the world with the largest ratio of billionaire wealth to metro GDP in 2015. The combined wealth of billionaires in Geneva was 1.53 times greater than the GDP of the city in 2015.

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.

In 2023, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas were the states with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean. The average GDP generated per person in the Bahamas amounted to 34,749 U.S. dollars, whereas the average wealth created per capita in Puerto Rico was estimated at around 34,749 U.S. dollars. In that same year, this region's lowest GDP per capita was that of Haiti, at less than 1,693 U.S. dollars per person per year. The largest economies in Latin America GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. It is an important indicator to measure the economic strength of a country and the average wealth of its population. By far, the two largest economies in the region are Brazil and Mexico, both registering GDPs three times bigger than the third place, Argentina. Nonetheless, they are the two most populated countries by a great margin.
Key economic indicators of Latin America Latin America emerges as an important region in the world economy, as of 2023, around 7.3 percent of the global GDP, a similar share to the Middle East. Nevertheless, the economic development of most of its countries has been heavily affected by other factors, such as corruption, inequality, inflation, or crime and violence. Countries such as Venezuela, Suriname, and Argentina are constantly ranking among the highest inflation rates in the world. While Jamaica, Ecuador, and Haiti rank as some of the most crime-ridden states.

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.