Abigail / Published on March 7, 2013
Despite many of the world’s largest economies currently suffering the effects of the recession, the list of the world’s richest is being added to at a steady rate. In the last 12 months, a whopping 210 multi-millionaires were propelled into the top league of extreme wealth as they achieved 10-figure fortunes, and according to a Forbes magazine study, the world now plays host to a record 1,426 dollar billionaires.
The combined wealth of members on the rich list is estimated to rack up $5.4tn (£3.6tn), which is equal to more than a third of the annual output of the US, the world’s largest economy. Figures for last year’s billionaires’ club stand at a combined total of $4.6tn.
The Guardian reported that Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms magnate topped the list once again for world’s richest man, with an estimated worth of $73bn. In second position is Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a fortune of $67bn, while Spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega ranked in third place thanks to his $57bn worth of fortune.
Despite Spain being among the worst suffering countries of the recession, with 55% youth unemployment, it was estimated that Ortega has seen the biggest rise in wealth of any billionaire, adding a massive $19.5bn to his pot.
Those who recently joined the billionaires’ club include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his former collaborators, as well as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, whose fortune amounts to $1.1bn. Women were well represented among newcomers to the Forbes list, the world’s richest being the 90-year-old French cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who is ranked in ninth position of the world’s richest internationally.
Forbes reports a total of 442 billionaires in the US, 366 in Europe, 129 elsewhere in the Americas and 103 in the Middle East and Africa.
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