Billionaires are a small proportion of the super-rich population. Normally, they have a high net worth and often have a huge influence on the global economy.
Anyone with a net worth of 1 Billion USD or more is considered a billionaire. It’s important to understand that this is the measure of net worth and not the actual cash in their banks. Most billionaires have substantial cash reserves, but that is significantly less than $1 Billion in most cases.
Net worth, simply put, is the total value of all known assets minus the total value of all known liabilities of a person. For example, most billionaires have their net worth comprised of real estate and stakeholdings in the stock market. That’s why many billionaires often see huge changes in their market value in almost no time due to changes in values of their stake’s value in the stock market.
All the billionaires in the world combined control over $12 Trillion. That’s a huge number, but their large influence over other markets and the global economy makes them control virtually a lot more than $12 Trillion.
How Many Billionaires Are There In The World?
Besides the richest humans like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, there are more than 2500 more people that belong to the elite club of billionaires.
In 2021, the world got 236 new first-time billionaires, that’s roughly 4.5 billionaires every week. But where do these super-rich individuals reside?
Who Are The Richest Billionaires In The World?
Even before going through the residence of the super-rich billionaires, let’s get acquainted with some of the richest in the world.
For many people, just being a billionaire isn’t enough. That’s why many become multi-billionaires, and a few even become centibillionaires (people whose net worth is more than $100 billion).
Here are the top 10 richest billionaires in the world in March 2021:
1. Elon Musk ($219B): Founder & CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, OpenAI
2. Jeff Bezos ($171B): Founder & former CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post
3. Bernard Arnault ($158B): Chairman and CEO of LVMH
4. Bill Gates ($129B): Founder of Microsoft
5. Warren Buffet ($118B): CEO of Berkshire Hathway and one of the largest investors in the world
6. Larry Page ($111B): Controlling shareholder and Former CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company)
7. Sergey Brin ($107B): Board member and former President of Alphabet (Google’s parent company)
8. Larry Ellison ($106B): Founder, Chairman, CTO, and more than 1/3rd shareholder of Oracle
9. Steve Ballmer ($91.4B): Former CEO of Microsoft
10. Mukesh Ambani ($90.7): Chairman of Reliance Industries
Where Do The Billionaires Reside?
Until a few years back, the vast majority of billionaires resided in some of the most economically developed countries only.
But that’s changing. Today billionaires reside in many more countries. Last year, humanity saw the first-ever billionaires from Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Uruguay.
8 of the top 10 previously mentioned richest billionaires reside in America today.
Moving on, let’s see which countries have the highest number of billionaires? The United States of America, perhaps unsurprisingly, has the highest number of billionaires, 735.
This is followed by China, having 607 billionaires. The third place is taken by India, with 165 billionaires. USA and China combined account for almost half of the billionaires in the world.
Here’s the list of countries with the highest number of billionaires:
- USA – 735
- China – 539
- India – 166
- Germany – 134
- Russia – 83
- Hong Kong – 67
- Canada – 64
- Brazil – 62
- Italy – 52
- Taiwan – 51
Which Cities Reside The Highest Number Of Billionaires?
Even the countries that have a significantly high number of billionaires observe a higher concentration of billionaires in a couple of cities.
New York tops this list with 107 billionaires. It’s a massive number. Hypothetically, if New York alone were a country, it would be the 5th largest country in the world with a high number of billionaires.
Here are the top 10 cities with the highest number of billionaires residing in them:
- New York City – 107 billionaires
- Bejing – 83 billionaires
- Hong Kong – 68 billionaires
- London – 66 billionaires
- Shanghai – 61 billionaires
- Shenzen – 59 billionaires
- Moscow – 53 billionaires
- Mumbai – 51 billionaires
- San Fransisco – 44 billionaires
- Seoul – 38 billionaires
China has four of the top ten cities with the highest number of billionaires. It is followed by the USA with two cities in the top ten. UK, Russia, India, and South Korea have one city each in the list of top ten cities with the most billionaires.
Where Do The Women Billionaires Reside?
Women for a long time have been underrepresented in the lists of richest people in the world. However, things are changing.
Today, there are 124 self-made women billionaires in the world. Many more women billionaires exist that have inherited their wealth. Overall, according to Forbes, there were 328 women billionaires in 2021. While the number is far too insignificant compared to the 2000+ male billionaires, the increasing number of super-rich women billionaires is a sign of a brighter future.
Chinese businesswoman Wu Yajun is the richest female billionaire in the world. She has a net worth of $17 Billion. Most of the women billionaires in the world are found in China.
In fact, 78 of the 124 women billionaires reside in China. It is followed by the USA with 25 women billionaires. The UK comes at third place with five women billionaires.
Popular singer, actress, and businesswomen Rihanna is not only a women billionaire; she is the first and only billionaire from Barbados, regardless of gender.
Why Are There So Many Billionaires In USA And China?
America and China are collectively the residences of almost half of the billionaires in the world.
What’s so special about USA and China that makes them so favorable towards billionaires?
Well, to begin with, USA and China are economically developed countries with massive multi-trillion dollar economies. But that’s not all.
Other countries like Russia and UK also have fairly big economies. However, the real reason why USA and China dominate the world is technology and manufacturing.
The USA dominates the world in terms of technology. Home to Silicon Valley, the USA has almost all of the biggest names in technology with them. As tech becomes a more integral part of our lives, American technology grows and supports many more people to become billionaires.
As far as China is concerned, China is the manufacturing capital of the world. Even the American technology companies use China to manufacture their products. This is thanks to China’s ability to support high-volume productions at low costs. The manufacturing power of China boosts its economy, giving chances to more and more people to tap this market.
Do Residents of Small Towns Become Billionaires?
Yes. While big cities and countries dominate USA and China, Billionaires can still be found in smaller countries and cities.
We have already discussed how smaller countries, Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia, et cetera. are starting to have billionaires. Similarly, even small cities in big countries can have Billionaires.
Some small American cities like Maryland, with a population of less than 3,000, have multiple billionaires.
Clearly, it’s possible to become a billionaire even after being from a small city. Some billionaires are traditionally from smaller towns but relocate to bigger cities to meet their business needs.
Elon Musk, for example, was born in Pretoria, South Africa, which by comparison, is a small town. However, he relocated to Canada, followed by the United States of America where he became a billionaire.
People who reside in small towns can definitely become billionaires, though some may choose to relocate thereafter.
Wrapping Up
Today, billionaires can be found in far more countries and cities than ever before. With improving economies and resources, many more countries are now seeing people become billionaires
Even after that, the highest number of billionaires in the world is still in the USA, followed by China and then India.
If you want to accidentally bump into a billionaire, then the best place for that is New York City. New York City remains the city with the highest number of billionaires, with over 100 billionaires having a combined net worth of $600 Billion plus.
Though the east is also growing quickly, with China and India adding many new billionaires every year. Women billionaires are also emerging into a traditionally male-dominated list.
As with every important change, creating diversity in the number of billionaires will take a lot of time. Slowly but certainly, women will be equally represented in the list of the riches. Likewise, more countries will start creating billionaires finishing the dominance of the USA and China on the list.