The World's Billionaires


The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, 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.
In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was ranked at the top for the first time and became the first centibillionaire included in the ranking, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had topped the list 18 of the previous 24 years. In 2022, after topping the list for four years, Bezos was surpassed by Elon Musk. In 2023, Musk was in turn surpassed by French businessman Bernard Arnault, after topping the list for just a year. Arnault became the first French person to top the list. In 2025, Musk once again became the wealthiest man in the list after surpassing Arnault.

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.
When a living individual has dispersed his or her wealth to immediate family members it is included under a single listing provided that individual is still living. However, if a deceased billionaire's fortune has been dispersed, it will not appear as a single listing, and each recipient will only appear if his or her own total net worth is over a $1 billion. Royal families and dictators that have their wealth contingent on a position are always excluded from these lists.

Annual rankings


The rankings are published annually in March, so the net worths listed are snapshots taken at that time. There are thousands of billionaires on the Forbes list; the excerpts below show only the wealthiest 10 for each year.
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2025

The 39th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires found a record 3,028 billionaires with a total net worth of $16.1 trillion. This represents an increase of 247 members and $1.9 trillion compared to 2024. This year also marked the first time Bill Gates dropped out of the top 10 richest people, which he had been part of for 33 years since the 6th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires in 1992.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalityPrimary source of wealth
1 $342 billion 53

Tesla and SpaceX
2 $216 billion 40United Statessteadysortname|Jeff|Bezosprofit

2024

The 38th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires found a record 2,781 billionaires with a total net wealth of $14.2 trillion. This is an increase of 141 members and $2 trillion from 2023, which held the previous record for the highest net worth gain on the list, surpassing the $900 billion record set in 2022. Two-thirds of the list members are wealthier compared to the previous year, including Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth increased by $112.6 billion.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalityPrimary source of wealth
1 & family$233 billion 75Francesteadysortname|Elon|Muskgain

2023

In the 37th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,640 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.2 trillion, down 28 members and $500 billion from 2022. Over half of the list is less wealthy compared to the previous year, including Elon Musk, who fell from No. 1 to No. 2. The list also marks for the first time a French citizen was in the top position as well as a non-American for the first time since 2013 when the Mexican Carlos Slim Helu was the world's richest person. The list, like in 2022, counted 15 under 30 billionaires with the richest of them being Red Bull heir Mark Mateschitz with a net worth of $34.7 billion. The youngest of the lot were Clemente Del Vecchio, heir to the Luxottica fortune shared with his six siblings and stepmother, and Kim Jung-yang, whose fortune lies in Japanese-South Korean gaming giant Nexon, both under-20s.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalityPrimary source of wealth
1 & family$211 billion 74Francelosssortname|Elon|Muskloss

2022

In the 36th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,668 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.7 trillion, down 97 members from 2021.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalityPrimary source of wealth
1 $219 billion 50South Africa

2021

In the 35th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,755 billionaires with a total net wealth of $13.1 trillion, up 660 members from 2020; 86% of these billionaires had more wealth than they possessed last year.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalitySource of wealth
1 $177 billion 57United Statesprofitsortname|Elon|Muskprofit

2020

In the 34th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,095 billionaires with a total net wealth of $8 trillion, down 58 members and $700 billion from 2019; 51% of these billionaires had less wealth than they possessed last year. The list was finalized as of 18 March, thus was already partially influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalitySource of wealth
1 $113 billion 56United Statessteadysortname|Bill|Gatesprofit

2019

In the 33rd annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,153 billionaires with a total net wealth of $8.7 trillion, down 55 members and $400 billion from 2018. The U.S. continued to have the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 609, while China dropped to 324.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalitySource of wealth
1 $131 billion 55United Statessteadysortname|Bill|Gatesprofit

2018

In the 32nd annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the aggregate wealth of the top 20 richest people on Earth amounted to about 13 percent of all billionaires' fortunes combined. A record of 2,208 billionaires were in the ranking and the total wealth was $9.1 trillion, up 18% since 2017. For the first time, Jeff Bezos was listed as the top billionaire due to Amazon's rising stock price that resulted in one person's biggest one-year gain in wealth since Forbes started tracking in 1987. The U.S. had the most billionaires in the world, with 585, while China was catching up with 476 when including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; it had 372 when excluding those three places. Forbes excluded Al-Walid bin Talal and all other Saudi billionaires due to the absence of accurate wealth estimations as a result of the 2017–19 Saudi Arabian purge.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalitySource of wealth
1 $112 billion 54United Stateslosssortname|Bill|Gatesprofit

2017

On the 30th anniversary of the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, for the fourth year in a row, Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world. In 2017, there was a record of 2,043 people on the list, which is the first time over 2,000 people were listed. This included 195 newcomers of whom 76 were from China and 25 from the U.S.; there were 56 people under 40 and it had a record of 227 women. The number of billionaires increased 13% to 2,043 from 1,810 in 2016; this was the biggest change in over 30 years of tracking billionaires globally. Added together, the total net worth for 2017's billionaires was, up from in 2015. This was the first time after 12 years that Carlos Slim was not within the top five. The U.S. had the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 565. China had 319, Germany had 114, and India had the fourth most with 101; India reached over 100 billionaires for its first time.
No.NameNet worth AgeNationalitySource of wealth
1 $86.0 billion 61United Statesprofitsortname|Warren|Buffettprofit