Being a billionaire has its own perks. Some great names like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates motivate people to come up with innovative ideas to make a fortune out of it. Most of the Billionaires in the world are not born rich. Instead, they make their fortune themselves. As per the Wealth X billionaire census 2018, there were 2397 billionaires, of which more than half (1324) are self-made. About 318 of these wealthy individuals have inherited their wealth from their families. The rest of them are such that they have inherited some of their wealth and have earned some of it.
The dominance of the United States:
There are a total of nine countries that have the most wealth and also the most number of billionaires. Among the United States is the nation that stands dominant among all of these countries. There are several reasons why stands prominently because it’s currency is the strongest one in the world. In the year 2016, the billionaire count and the total wealth dropped in all other countries, but the US stood strengthened. The wealth and the billionaire count didn’t fall in the country.
Most Popular Billionaire Locations:
New York and San Francisco are known to be the most popular billionaire city in the world. New York stood on the first rank, being the home of more wealthy people than in any other city in the world. San Francisco is also famous for its rich people count.
The US is leading the world in the wealth sector because of two primary reasons. First of all, the currency of the United States is quite strong. Secondly, it the country where the technological research and development is at its peak. The US is the home of some of the most innovative tech industries.
As IT is the rapidly growing field. The average wealth of other billionaires is 3.1 billion dollar whereas, the average wealth of billionaires from the technology industry is about 5.1 billion dollars. More than half of these rich people from IT are below the age of 50.
Billionaires from the United States:
The US has a total of 620 wealthy people having a wealth of about 2580 billion dollars. Down below is the list of top 15 billionaires from different areas of United States:
| Sr. No. | Name | Wealth (Billion US Dollars) | Source |
| 1 | Jeff Bezos | 112 | Amazon.com |
| 2 | Bill Gates | 90 | Microsoft |
| 3 | Warren Buffett | 84 | Berkshire Hathaway |
| 4 | Mark Zuckerberg | 71 | |
| 5 | David Koch | 60 | Koch Industries |
| 6 | Charles Koch | 60 | Koch Industries |
| 7 | Larry Ellison | 58.5 | Software |
| 8 | Michael Bloomberg | 50 | Bloomberg LP |
| 9 | Larry Page | 48.8 | |
| 10 | Sergey Brin | 47.5 | |
| 11 | Jim Walton | 46.4 | Walmart |
| 12 | S. Robson Walton | 46.2 | Walmart |
| 13 | Alice Walton | 46 | Walmart |
| 14 | Sheldon Adelson | 38.5 | Casinos |
| 15 | Steve Ballmer | 38.4 | Microsoft |
Jeff Bezos: Net Worth $ 112bn:
Jeff Bezos is a well-known wealthiest person in the world. He is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com which is one of the leading e-commerce platforms. Jeff was the very first person to go above 100 billion dollars as per the Forbes list of billionaires. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was raised in Houston Texas and graduated from Princeton University 1989 getting a degree electrical engineering and computer sciences.
In 1994, he founded Amazon. The company started as a bookstore. Later on, it began to increase the variety of its products. They also started selling other services on the store including audio and video streaming. As of now, it is the world’s largest online sales company.
Jeff makes all his personal investments Bezos Expeditions. He was one of the first people who invested and bought the shares of Google. He invested $250,000 back in 1998.
Bill Gates: Net Worth $ 97bn
Bill Gates is the second wealthiest person in the United States. He along with Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. Microsoft is now one of the greatest companies in information technology. While he was at Microsoft, he held the positions of chairman, C.E.O and the chief software architect. Under his observation and command, the company has achieved great success.
He has been on the Forbes list of the wealthiest people. He remained the wealthiest person in the entire world till October 2017. Jeff Bezos took over his position and became the wealthiest person as of 27th October 2017.
Warren Buffett: Net Worth $ 84bn
Warren Buffet is one of the richest persons in the United States. He is the third wealthiest man in the country with a net worth of 84 billion US dollars. He’s currently the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The story of his success starts from when he joined Berkshire back in the 1960s. He helped in expanding the company. It’s because of his experiences and vision that the company merged out to be one of the leading conglomerates across the globe.
In recent years, Warren is playing the role of investor and facilitator in the major transactions in the world. He also gave a loan to some of the companies that were going through loss. Ten years after his investments these loans resulted in profits. Those transactions have yielded massive profits, and it’s the vision of Warren that puts him on the list of eccentric billionaires.
Mark Zuckerberg: Net Worth $ 71bn
Mark Zuckerberg, the C.E.O of Facebook is a well-known personality in the US and all across the world. He made his fortune by using his creative ideas to create a social media platform for helping people communicate with one another.
From the start, when he was a kid, he had an interest in computers. He belonged to a well-educated family. When he was in high school, his parents got him a teacher who taught computer programming. When he was 12, he made a program for interoffice communication to use in his father’s dental practice. The program was used for sending messages to one another within the office.
How his Success Tuned Big:
He joined Harvard University and became famous there because of his programming skills. He developed two applications called CourseMatch and FaceMash. These programs grew viral across the campus. The campus shut down FaceMash later on, claiming that it was inappropriate.
After that, he set an even bigger objective for himself. He partnered up with some of his friends and started developing a social networking website. This site was proposed to allow the students on the campus to communicate with one another. He officially launched the site in June 2004. It was named ‘The Facebook’, and Mark took care of all the operations of the site from his dorm room.
He became so indulged with the Facebook that he was dropped out of the university. At the end of the year 2004, the site had more than 1 million users.
As of the second quarter of the year 2018, the average daily users of Facebook are about 1.47 billion.
Billionaires in China:
China stands second on the list of countries that have the most billionaires. That is because of the strong economy of the country and the hardworking capabilities of the nation itself. China exports goods and services all across the world. The country is a hub of all kinds of manufacturing from technology goods to industrial supplies and daily use products.
In China, the billionaires are quite younger as compared to the rest of the world. Adding to that, most of the people have made their fortune themselves, i.e. they are self-made billionaires. The rich people count in the country has increased rapidly increased in the country. The increased number of billionaires is because of the developments in the technology, real estate and consumer retail industries. So that is why most of them are wealth creators and not wealth preservers.
Top 20 Billionaires in China:
| Rank | Name | Net Worth | Age | Industry |
| 1 | Jack Ma | $34.6 B | 54 | e-commerce |
| 2 | Ma Huateng | $32.8 B | 47 | internet media |
| 3 | Hui Ka Yan | $30.8 B | 60 | real estate |
| 4 | Wang Jianlin | $22.7 B | 64 | real estate |
| 5 | He Xiangjian | $19.5 B | 76 | home appliances |
| 6 | Yang Huiyan | $17.1 B | 37 | real estate |
| 7 | Wang Wei | $14.9 B | 48 | package delivery |
| 8 | Robin Li | $14.6 B | 50 | internet search |
| 9 | Li Shufu | $14.2 B | 55 | automobiles |
| 10 | William Ding | $13.5 B | 47 | online games |
| 11 | Lei Jun | $11.9 B | 48 | smartphones |
| 12 | Colin Huang | $11.25 B | 38 | e-commerce |
| 13 | Wang Wenyin | $11.2 B | 50 | mining, copper products |
| 14 | Zhang Zhidong | $11.15 B | 46 | internet media |
| 15 | Sun Piaoyang | $10.4 B | 60 | pharmaceuticals |
| 16 | Xu Shihui | $9.1 B | 60 | snacks, beverages |
| 17 | Pang Kang | $8.8 B | 62 | soy sauce maker |
| 18 | Zong Qinghou | $8.5 B | 73 | beverages |
| 19 | Zhang Yong | $7.7 B | 48 | restaurants |
| 20 | Gong Hongjia | $7.35 B | 53 | video surveillance |
Jack Ma: Net Worth $ 35.6bn
Jack Ma made his fortune by producing one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world. He is the founder of Alibaba Group and is currently the chairperson of it. He recently announced that he would step down from the chairmanship of Alibaba and Daniel Zhang will take care of the company later on.
Back in 19954, when the internet was not that popular, Jack heard about the internet. He, later on, went to the US where his friends introduced him to the internet. Later on, he discovered that there are not much sites of China listed on the internet. So he started a business of making web pages. Companies from China paid him to create web pages.
Later on, in he launched his own e-commerce platform in Hangzhou, China in 1994 and named it Alibaba.
Ma Huateng: Net Worth $ 32.8bn
Ma Huateng is also known as Pony Ma. He is the chairman of one of the leading tech companies in China, Tencent Holdings. The company is well known for its products and services. It launched We Chat as a messaging platform. The application now has more than 1 billion active users. He founded Tencent back in 1998.
Hui Ka Yan: Net Worth $ 30.8bn
Hui Ka Yan chairs Evergrande Group which is a prominent name in China’s real estate market. Evergrande has completed more than 800 real estate projects in different cities across the world. He started the organization back in 1996. Starting from small projects, he made his way to some of the most significant projects and properties in China.
Richest People in Europe
In the European region, Germany took the lead, having the most number of billionaires. If we look at the overall situation in Europe, the number of billionaires in Europe has dropped. Consequently, the net wealth has also decreased. In declined from 1.9 trillion US dollars to $ 1.84tn.
There are about 100 billionaires in Germany having an approximated wealth of $469.1 billion. On the second rank here comes Russia, having about 77 rich people. In France, the total rich count is 39.
The wealth trends are quite different in Europe as most of the people are wealth preservers. They keep the family business up and running as they grow up and have more liquidity.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/sunday-times-rich-list-2017-richest-people-in-europe-2017-5
Amancio Ortega:
Amancio Ortega comes, son, the top of the list of European billionaires. He has a net worth of $63.3 bn as per the statistics of November 2018. He is one of the pioneers of the fast fashion industry. Ortega is the co-founder of Inditex. Inditex’s Zara is a fashion chain that produces quality goods and supplies them all across the world. The typical income of the man is $ 400 million a year. He has also invested in real estate in different cities including New York, Miami, Chicago, Madrid, London and Barcelona.
At the age of 82, he currently lives in La Coruna, Spain. Most of his wealth is self-made and his brand Zara is a primary source of his income.
Bernard Arnault & family
Bernard belongs to Paris, France and is one of the people with most money in Europe. On the Forbes list of most powerful people, he ranks 56. He also ranks 4th on the list of wealthiest people in the world. He is the chief executive of LVMH. The company produces luxury goods. Arnault’s brands are famous all across the globe. Some significant mentions of his brands include Louis Vuitton Sephora.
Liliane Bettencourt & family:
Bettencourt was ranked in the list of wealthiest people in the world in June 2016. In 2016, she was on top of the list of women billionaires in the world. She was the major shareholders of L’Oréal. She died a year ago on 21st September 2017 at the age of 94. As of the recent stats, her net worth is $ 39.5bn.
German Billionaires:
Germany is an European country that comes 3rd on the list of countries with the most number of billionaires according to the Wealth X Census 2017. It has about 129 wealthiest people in total having a net wealth of $ 368bn.
Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr.
Ranking 27 on the Forbes 400 list, Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr. belong to Germany. They have as an estimated wealth of $ 29.8bn. Karl was an entrepreneur who co-founded the well-known supermarket chain ‘Aldi’ in the country along with his brother Theo.
They followed the footsteps of Walmart and started this discount store. The discount revolution was quite popular in Germany at that time. So they took advantage in made their way into the retail market and became famous quite early.
In 1961, Theo and Karl decided to split the ownership of the store. In that deal, Karl got the stores located in southern Germany. Adding to that he also secured his rights to use the brand in U.K, U.S. and Australia. His brother got the ownership of all the stores located in the northern parts of the country and most parts of Europe.
Georg Schaeffler:
Having a net worth of $ 25.3bn, Georg Schaeffler is German billionaire who made his fortune in the auto parts industry. Maria-Elisabeth and Georg own Schaeffler Group. The company is the largest producer of ball bearings and other machinery parts in the world. Both of them now own 46% of Continental. The success of AG Continent is the primary reason behind the steady increase in their net wealth.
Susanne Klatten:
With a net worth of $25bn, Susanne Klatten is ranked 32nd on the list Forbes Billionaires. She is the wealthiest female billionaire in Germany. She owns 19.2% of the famous automaker, BMW. She did he Master in Business Administration from International Institute for Management and Development. Later on, she played a great role in transforming the future of her grandfather’s company Altana AG. With her brilliant administrative and economic skills, she turned the company into a world-class pharmaceutical company. She also holds some other stakes in different companies of the world. But her net worth is huge because of BMW and AD Group.
Stefan Quandt
Securing 42nd rank on the list, Stefan Quandt is one of the wealthiest men in Germany. The net worth is $ 22bn according to 2018 billionaires Net Worth. He is the brother of Susanne Klatten, the wealthiest woman in Germany. He owns 23.7% of BMW. Stefan and Susanne, both are on the supervisory board of Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW). He got his degrees in economics and engineering from Technical University of Karlsruhe.
Stefan Quandt has his holding in different companies in Germany including Logwin, Gemalto and Heel.
He holds 76.8% of CEAG which manufactures power supplies and recharging devices for smartphones. He also holds 100% of Heel which specializes in homoeopathic medicine.
Billionaires Archetypes:
| TOTAL | Harvard | Tech | China | Inherited | |
| Count | 2397 | 125 | 115 | 249 | 318 |
| Wealth ($ bn) | 7400 | 590 | 600 | 670 | 1050 |
| Average Wealth ($ bn) | 3.1 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
| Average Liquidity | 775 | 1,100 | 875 | 300 | 800 |
| Liquidity (Percentage share) | 25 | 23 | 17 | 11 | 25 |
| Number of Countries they dwell in | 93 | 32 | 20 | 1 | 44 |
| Top 3 Countries | US
China Germany |
US
Brazil Hong Kong |
US
China Korea |
China | US
Germany Switzerland |
If we take a look at the billionaires worldwide, we can categorize them in 4 categories. First of all, the one who has studied and worked with Harward. The people who belong to the tech industry come in the second category. The third is the category of Chinese billionaires. The fourth category is of the people who have inherited their wealth.
