The wealth held by the world's billionaires jumped by nearly $1 trillion in 2016, and they now have more money than the GDP of Germany or Japan, according to a new report by UBS and PwC.
The population of billionaires rose by 145, or about 10 percent in 2016, to 1,542 billionaires.
The wealth held by those billionaires increased from $5.1 trillion to $6 trillion with their surge in wealth far surpassing broader economic growth or stock market growth.
Today’s graphic comes from HowMuch.net and it shows the richest person on each continent based on data from October 30th, 2017.
Here is the full breakdown by continent:
Person | Continent | Net Worth | Source of Wealth |
---|---|---|---|
Jeff Bezos | North America | $97.7B | Technology |
Jorge Paulo Leman | South America | $30.4B | Food and beverage |
Amancio Ortega | Europe | $80.1B | Fashion, real estate, investing |
Aliko Dangote | Africa | $13.1B | Cement, sugar, flour, salt |
Wang Jianlin | Asia | $25.1B | Entertainment, real estate |
Gina Rinehart | Oceania | $16.6B | Mining |
Net worth figures from HowMuch.net as of October 30, 2017
While Antarctica does have valuable natural resource reserves, there are no billionaires living there.
In fact, there are no permanent Antarctic residents at all - But we're planning to visit there as part of our cruise next month!
Still, it is a continent and How Much didn’t want to nominate a penguin, so they chose Arnold W. Donald as its richest person.
As CEO of Carnival Corporation, Donald’s cruise ships make the most profitable endeavours to Antarctica.
His net worth is likely to be less than $100 million.