Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2014. All figures come from the Wealth-X billionaire census published in 2014, including the number of billionaires and their combined wealth, and the fortunes quoted for Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett; they should not be read as current.
There are an estimated 12 million millionaires worldwide, but only 2,325 billionaires. That shrinks the club to a lucky few, people who see anyone with a net worth of just $1 million as middle class.
The latest billionaire census, carried out by the firm Wealth-X, turned up some rather curious facts about this exclusive club.
1. The average billionaire is worth around $3 billion. This is clearly an average: at the top we have people like Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett, worth $76 billion, $64 billion and $58 billion respectively.
2. Together, the 2,325 billionaires hold a total of $7.3 trillion, more than the value of all the companies in the Dow Jones combined. In other words, if they all decided to team up, they could buy every one of the most important companies in the United States and still have a great deal of money left over.
3. If all the billionaires decided to form a country, their wealth would be greater than Japan’s GDP.
4. Billionaires’ combined wealth grew 12% compared with the previous year. While the middle class has been losing purchasing power, the rich have been growing their wealth steadily year after year, to the point of accumulating a level of wealth never before seen in human history.
5. These 2,325 billionaires alone control 4% of all the world’s wealth. Meanwhile, the richest 1% of the population (millionaires plus billionaires) already controls 40% of global wealth, which is also the highest level of concentration in human history.
6. There is one billionaire on Earth for every 3 million people.
7. Europe is the continent with the most billionaires, with a total of 775.
8. The United States is the country with the most billionaires. It has 571, more than any other country, with 51 added since the previous year.
9. New York is the city that has produced the most billionaires: 52 to be precise, twice as many as the next city, Moscow, with only 22. In fact, being born in New York increases your chances of becoming a billionaire.
10. 60% of billionaires made their fortune from nothing. Despite the belief that billionaires inherited their wealth, 60% of them built their empires from scratch.
11. 27% became billionaires after reinvesting inherited wealth. That is, they inherited a few hundred thousand dollars or a million or so and managed to multiply it exponentially.
12. 13% became billionaires outright. This is the share who inherited a huge fortune directly.
13. The average billionaire is 63 years old. Becoming a billionaire takes time.
14. 93% of the world’s billionaires are over 45. Even so, we are living through a unique moment in history in which the number of billionaires under 30 has grown considerably thanks to Silicon Valley, where young people sell their business ideas for hundreds of millions and even billions.
15. Billionaires invest heavily in real estate. On average, each billionaire is estimated to have around $160 million invested in property. They tend to own four properties on average, with a few exceptions.
16. They also invest in other kinds of assets. One in every 30 billionaires owns a sports team, while others buy yachts, a private jet, luxury cars, antiques and works of art.
17. The typical billionaire is a man in a stable marriage. 65% of them are married, and although some have three divorces behind them, the self-made male billionaire is usually married and stays in a stable marriage for life. Let’s just say that they knew what they wanted when it came to becoming billionaires, and in the same way they knew what they wanted when choosing a partner for life.
18. They are well educated. 65% of billionaires have a university degree, and the universities that have produced the most rich people are Harvard, Yale and Pennsylvania.
19. But 35% of billionaires have no university degree. This select group includes Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who both decided not to finish college.
20. Most billionaires come from the world of finance. 20% of billionaires came out of Wall Street, and a high percentage of the rest, even though they did not work on Wall Street, had a broad knowledge of finance. Today, Silicon Valley is already producing billionaires at a pace very similar to Wall Street’s.
Further reading
- 6 beliefs of self-made rich people
- 15 people who became millionaires before they turned 20
- It is easier than ever to get rich: 6 steps to do it
Featured image: Itrytohelp32, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
