A total of 2,640 billionaires from 77 countries and territories found a place on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people by net worth in 2023. The United States, as has always been the case, recorded the highest number of billionaires at 735 followed by mainland China at 495.
Of the top 10 billionaires in the world, eight are Americans. The only two non-Americans among the top 10 are Bernard Arnault of France and Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico.
Arnault, the founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is in direct competition with SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk for the title of the richest person in the world. For the last few months, it has either been Arnault or Musk taking the top spot.
On the other hand, Carlos Slim Helú was once the richest person in the world. His fortune comes from his conglomerate Grupo Carso, which owns telecom giant Telmex — the company that has been sponsoring Mexican Formula 1 driver and Grand Prix winner Sergio Pérez almost since the beginning of the latter’s racing career.
The total number of billionaires in Forbes’ 2023 list is 75 more than it was in 2022, of which 43 are from Russia, Italy and Singapore combined.
But neither have all countries increased their billionaire count nor have they improved the overall billionaire wealth. Despite having the most billionaires by country, the US, for instance, failed to add a single billionaire in 2023. Moreover, the total net worth of all its billionaires, at USD 4.5 trillion in 2023, is down by USD 200 billion from the previous year.
China, too, saw a decline in billionaires. While it had 539 billionaires in 2022, the country’s count fell to 495 with a total net worth of USD 1.67 trillion.
The most number of billionaires in the world by country
United States
Number of billionaires: 735
The US has the highest number of billionaires in the world. The figure is more than the combined number of billionaires of the following two countries on Forbes’ list.
It is understandable given that the US has long been at the forefront of innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. There are fewer bottlenecks and red tape than in many other economies, which grants greater freedom for doing business. Moreover, the world’s oldest democracy, where power has oscillated between just two parties for over 150 years, practically guarantees a highly stable political climate.
These factors have played a key role in attracting some of the brightest minds from the world over, especially since around the time of World War II. This is the reason behind all the world’s top five Big Tech companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Meta (as Facebook), Alphabet (as Google), and Apple – were created and are located in the US. Indeed, 10 of the 15 US billionaires in the top 20 are involved and have made their fortune in the tech industry.
But the sheer number of billionaires in the US point to the fact that the country effectively has a strong hold on almost all walks of life. Thus, not only tech or other commonly known entrepreneurial arenas, but the US also boasts billionaires in its vibrant entertainment and sports industries, such as pop icon Rihanna, media personality Kim Kardashian, rapper Jay-Z, golfer Tiger Woods and basketball star LeBron James.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Elon Musk: USD 237.2 billion
Jeff Bezos: USD 154.3 billion
Larry Ellison: USD 147.9 billion
Bill Gates: USD 119.3 billion
Warren Buffet: USD 117.7 billion
China
Number of billionaires: 495
China’s phenomenal economic growth through the late 20th century and into the 21st can be attributed to just one individual — Deng Xiaoping.
In 1978, Deng, who was then the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), made a historic decision to open the country’s economy to foreign investment. It was a landmark move, given that China was deeply rooted in Communism and was still recovering from Mao Zedong’s disastrous Cultural Revolution.
Deng’s decision positively affected every aspect of life in China — from agriculture to industry. Today, China’s USD 19 trillion economy constitutes around 18 per cent of the global economy and is the world’s second-largest after the US.
Unlike the US, China’s strength lies in manufacturing. Nearly every major manufacturer in the world, including tech giants such as Tesla (the Shanghai Gigafactory) and Apple (via Taiwanese company Foxconn), has a manufacturing arm in China. Chinese billionaires, therefore, are involved in a wide range of manufacturing and production businesses, including those that are outside the realm of technology, such as beverages, automobiles, batteries and mining.
For instance, Zhong Shanshan, the richest Chinese businessperson, is the founder of the bottled water company Nongfu Spring. Only two names — Zhang Yiming of TikTok and Ma Huateng of Tencent — are among the Chinese businesspersons in the top five who made their fortune in the tech industry.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Zhong Shanshan: USD 66.3 billion
Zhang Yiming: USD 45 billion
Ma Huateng: USD 37.6 billion
William Lei Ding: USD 34.5 billion
Colin Zheng Huang: USD 31.7 billion
India
Number of billionaires: 169
In September 2022, India became the world’s fifth-largest economy by overtaking the United Kingdom. It marked a phenomenal achievement for a country whose GDP, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), was the 11th largest just a decade prior.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India will be the world’s fourth-largest GDP by 2027. The country’s growing economy has resulted in a rise in the number of its billionaires, adding three billionaires to its 2022 tally of 166. At USD 675 billion, their total net worth of 2023 is USD 75 billion less than the previous year, largely because of the massive fall in the net worth of Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani.
Like China, India’s wealthiest names are engaged in a wide range of businesses, not related to technology. Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian with a net worth of USD 94.5 billion, is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, a multinational conglomerate which is into everything from energy to natural gas and retail to telecommunications.
Although large business families such as Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas have been shaping India’s economy for several decades, the country’s economic growth got a major boost only in 1991. Largely due to the decades of Fabian socialist policies that successive governments followed, India was in a deep economic crisis at the time. The then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (who would later become Prime Minister) ushered in a wave of reforms with the historic liberalisation of the Indian economy on 24 July 1991.
The decision brought in foreign investment and opened India’s economy to the outside world. It ended the notorious Licence Raj, a system present since India’s independence in 1947 under which a business would have to secure the approval of as many as 80 government agencies to be able to operate. The end of the system encouraged Indian entrepreneurs to set up their businesses with ease.
But even though India has made tremendous progress since liberalisation, inequality in the distribution of wealth exists. A 2023 report by the British charitable confederation Oxfam revealed that the top 1 per cent owned more than 40.5 per cent of its total wealth created between 2012 and 2021, while the bottom 50 per cent received only 3 per cent of it.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Mukesh Ambani: USD 89.7 billion
Gautam Adani: USD 54.5 billion
Cyrus Poonawalla: USD 31.1 billion
Shiv Nadar: USD 25.9 billion
Savitri Jindal & Family: USD 20.4 billion
Germany
Number of billionaires: 126
Germany has long been Europe’s economic nerve centre. According to World Bank data, its current GDP in 2022 was USD 4.07 trillion — 25 per cent more than that of the second-placed UK. Germany has been the richest European country by GDP for a long time and is the fourth-largest economy in the world.
No wonder the country has a high share of billionaires. Dieter Schwarz, the richest person in Germany, is the owner of the discounted supermarket giant Schwarz Group. The retailer’s annual sales is more than USD 140 billion. He is followed by logistics magnate Klaus-Michael Kühne, the honorary chairman of Switzerland-headquartered Kuehne + Nagel International AG. In 2022, he became the largest single investor in the world-famous German airline carrier Lufthansa.
Among the top five richest people in Germany is the brother-sister duo of Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten. It is one of the rarest instances where two siblings are billionaires with almost equal net worth. They hold a total of 42.7 per cent in German multinational automaker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or BMW as it is famously known.
According to Forbes, the siblings are on BMW’s supervisory board with Quandt serving as deputy chairman. Klatten, whose share in BMW is 19.1 per cent, is among the 10 richest women in the world.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Dieter Schwarz: USD 48 billion
Klaus-Michael Kühne: USD 36.6 billion
Reinhold Würth & family: USD 31.7 billion
Stefan Quandt: USD 26.2 billion
Susanne Klatten: USD 25.1 billion
Russia
Number of billionaires: 105
Forbes notes that Russia has produced more billionaires through 2022 than it did in 2021, despite the Western sanctions that came in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It had 83 billionaires on the 2022 list, which jumped by 22 over the course of the year. As of 2023, their combined net worth stands at USD 474 billion.
“A global upswing in commodities prices–driven in large part by the invasion and subsequent Western sanctions–have bolstered revenues for some Russian firms,” Forbes reports.
The rise in prices has helped some businesses in Russia, most notably fertiliser tycoon Andrey Melnichenko of EuroChem Group. Melnichenko more than doubled his income in just one year from USD 11.1 billion to USD 25.2 billion to become the richest Russian in the world.
Most of the others among the top five Russian billionaires are also those whose fortunes rose despite sanctions, including steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, whose net worth rose by USD 7.7 billion, and Vladimir Potanin of Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), who saw a rise of USD 6.4 billion in his wealth, according to Forbes.
Most of the Russian billionaires, famously known as oligarchs because of their control over the country and close proximity to the Russian president, emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union. The rather small coterie has private ownership of some of the biggest metal and oil companies in the world. But while the oligarchs continued to become richer, the lives of many ordinary Russians didn’t improve. As a result, Russia has a stark income inequality with the top 1 per cent of Russia’s richest households earning over 20 per cent of the national income as of 2021.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Andrey Melnichenko & family: USD 24.7 billion
Vladimir Potanin: USD 23.7 billion
Vladimir Lisin: USD 22.1 billion
Leonid Mikhelson & family: USD 21.6 billion
Alexey Mordashov & family: USD 20.7 billion
Hong Kong
Number of billionaires: 66
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has long been one of the best business destinations in Asia. It is seen as a great success story of economic prosperity in the world, despite its relatively small land area.
Even though it was left in ruins during the Japanese occupation, which ended in 1945, Hong Kong witnessed a tremendous entrepreneurial leap to become the most prosperous British-controlled territory in the Far East within 10 years.
But its real economic boom happened between the years 1962 and 1970 when Hong Kong grew at a frenetic pace with real-estate and engineering marvels such as massive highways, tunnels, reservoirs, and high-rises covering its landscape. Electronics, optical and financial companies, such as banks, propel the Asian economy to new heights, leading to the rise in the number of extremely rich business leaders in Hong Kong.
Indeed, many of Hong Kong’s current crop of billionaires can trace their rise to the boom period. Most prominent among them are infrastructure titans Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau Kee and Lui Che Woo, all three of whom are nonagenarians.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Li Ka-shing: USD 38.4 billion
Robin Zeng: USD 33.9 billion
Lee Shau Kee: USD 27.8 billion
Peter Woo: USD 15.6 billion
Lui Che Woo: USD 15.2 billion
Italy
Number of billionaires: 64
Like Germany, Italy, too, has long been an economic powerhouse of Europe with a GDP of USD 2.01 trillion in 2022. Though the country’s economy has been going down since 2008, Forbes’ report suggests that its billionaire count has risen by 12 over the past year.
Engineering and metallurgy are the strong sectors of the Italian economy. But the country is particularly known for automobiles and fashion. It doesn’t, therefore, come as a surprise that two of its top five billionaires — Giorgio Armani and Piero Ferrari — belong to these industries.
Neither Armani nor Ferrari needs an introduction. They are counted among the greatest in their respective worlds. While 89-year-old Armani is the founder of his namesake fashion brand, Piero is the son of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari and the vice-chairman of the company of which he owns 10 per cent.
On the other hand, Giovanni Ferrero, the richest Italian, is the head of Ferrero Group, which is the world’s second-largest chocolate maker. Its brands include Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac. The company is owned by several members of the Ferrero family and recorded sales of around USD 15 billion in 2022. Giovanni serves as the company’s executive chairman
A closer look at the net worth of the five richest Italians reveals that Italy is the only country among the top 10 where the richest person is almost seven times wealthier than the fifth-richest person.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Giovanni Ferrero: USD 39.9 billion
Giorgio Armani: USD 12.4 billion
Sergio Stevanato & family: USD 7.9 billion
Massimiliana Landini Aleotti & family: USD 7.3 billion
Piero Ferrari: USD 6.6 billion
Canada
Number of billionaires: 63
There are only a handful of billionaires among the top 100 in the world who are also nobles. David Thomson is one of them. The 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet is a Canadian-British hereditary peer whose family controls Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s biggest media houses.
David Thomson is the chairman of Thomson Reuters. He also chairs the Thomson family investment company Woodbridge as well as Canadian media company The Globe and Mail. A look at Forbes’ data shows that his net worth has increased by almost 42 per cent since 2020, making him the 22nd richest billionaire in the world in 2023. It is a significant position, given that the second-richest Canadian, David Cheriton, is not even among the world’s 200 richest. In fact, Thomson’s net worth is about 50 per cent more than the combined net worth of the following four Canadian billionaires.
Among Canada’s notable billionaires is Changpeng Zhao. The China-born Canadian is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. His fortune is built on the success of cryptocurrency. Interestingly, however, his net worth has seen a sharp rise and a sharp decline over two years. His net worth climbed 32 times from USD 1.9 billion in 2021 to USD 65 billion in 2022. As cryptocurrency tanked through 2022, his net worth followed suit and fell by almost six times to just over USD 10 billion.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
David Thomson & family: USD 57.9 billion
David Cheriton: USD 11.3 billion
Anthony von Mandl: USD 10.5 billion
Changpeng Zhao: USD 10.2 billion
Jim Pattison: USD 10.1 billion
United Kingdom
Number of billionaires: 52
With a long and illustrious history of industrialisation, the UK was once the richest nation in the world. Though that status is long gone, it still is one of the world’s most prominent economies producing everything from paper to aircraft.
Today, its wealthiest people own companies that are into finance, chemicals, consumer goods and even gambling. James Ratcliffe, the richest Briton, and John Reece, the fifth-richest, are connected to the chemicals conglomerate INEOS Group. Ratcliffe, a chemical engineer, founded the group in 1998, which Reece, a chartered accountant, joined in 2000.
Michael Platt is the co-founder and CEO of BlueCrest Capital Management, one of the world’s largest hedge fund firms. Denise Coates, the richest British woman billionaire, is the co-CEO of Bet365, one of the world’s largest online gambling companies. Bet365 facilitates bets worth USD 65 billion every year, according to Forbes.
James Dyson is particularly famous as an inventor. Despite being a qualified designer and not an engineer, he created the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner based on a system popular in sawmills in the mid-1980s. He founded his namesake company in the early 1990s. Headquartered in Singapore, Dyson is today a renowned name in the world of consumer electronics.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
James Ratcliffe: USD 23 billion
Michael Platt: USD 16.0 billion
James Dyson: USD 9.8 billion
Denise Coates: USD 7.8 billion
John Reece: USD 7.7 billion
Taiwan
Number of billionaires: 52
While the number of billionaires in Taiwan in 2023 is the same as that of the UK, the total net worth of the Taiwanese billionaires fell by USD 15 billion to USD 136 billion. By comparison, the UK billionaires added USD 2 billion to their wealth for a combined total of USD 202 billion.
Taiwan is one of the most developed countries in Asia. Its economy relies heavily on the service sector, but manufacturing, especially of semiconductors, electronics and computers, is also a key contributor to the growth of the picturesque island nation.
The industries of some of the richest billionaires in Taiwan indicate a greater diversity and almost equal level of wealth. For instance, while Tsai Eng-meng is the chairman of Chinese-style snacks and drinks company Want Want China, Zhang Congyuan, the second-richest, is the founder of shoemaker Huali Industrial, whose factories produce shoes for Nike, Puma, UGG and Vans.
Barry Lam, the richest Taiwanese, is the chairman of Quanta Computer, the world’s largest manufacturer of notebook computers. Nearly all the world’s most famous computer brands, including Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Lenovo and Alienware, have their notebooks manufactured by Quanta. The company is also one of the key manufacturers of the Apple Watch.
Apple is also connected to Hon Hai Precision, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer. Founded by Terry Gou, the company is better known as Foxconn. It has also owned Japanese electronics giant Sharp and the mobile phone business of Nokia since 2016.
Lin Shu-hong, on the other hand, is the co-founder and former chairman of Chang Chun Group, which is one of Asia’s largest petrochemical companies.
Top five billionaires and their net worth
Barry Lam: USD 10.4 billion
Zhang Congyuan: USD 8.3 billion
Terry Gou: USD 7.4 billion
Lin Shu-hong: USD 7.1 billion
Tsai Eng-meng: USD 6.4 billion
(The net worth of the top five billionaires from each country as on 2 August 2023.)
(Hero and Featured image credits: Courtesy of Patrick Pleul/POOL/AFP)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There are 2,640 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes' 2023 data.
The US has the most billionaires, with a total of 735.
Yes, India has a decent number of billionaires. According to Forbes, the country has as many as 169 people with a net worth of at least USD 1 billion.
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Written by
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
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