Super Rich

Superfact 120: The amount of wealth owned by the billionaires is roughly double as much as the poorest half of the world’s population. The amount of wealth owned by the 12 richest billionaires is more than the wealth of the poorest 50% of the world’s population. The richest 1% of the global population owns approximately 38% to 45% of the world’s total wealth.

Esther’s writing prompt: July 15th : Rich

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A one hundred US Dollar bill sailing through a cloudy sky. | Super Rich
US 100 dollar bills falling through the air Shutterstock Asset id: 2555911235 by Caito

There are at the moment of this writing 3,428 dollar billionaires in the world worth 20.1 trillion dollars together. For comparison the poorest 50% of the world’s population holds between $9 trillion to $12 trillion dollars of wealth (about half). According to this report the amount of wealth owned by the poorest half of the world is less than the amount owned by just the 12 richest billionaires. By the time you read this the numbers have probably changed (likely upwards). You can also read more in Wikipedia.

I am specifying that it is in dollars and not let’s say in the Iranian Rial. With respect to the Iranian Rial, I am also a billionaire, and you are probably too (if you own a phone or computer). One dollar can buy roughly 1,300,000 to 1,600,000 IRR. You just need $700 to be a billionaire in the Iranian Rial.

This is a bar graph showing the number of billionaires and combined wealth starting in 2013 and ending in 2026.
World’s billionaires. Number and total wealth by year. Trillions of dollars. The graph comes from here. <<Link-6>> Katharina Buchholz. Cropped and edited by User:Timeshifter using freeware IrfanView., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I should say that initially I was just going to list interesting statistics about the super-rich. However, I found myself surprised by the statistics, and I am sure I am not the only one. Therefore, I picked a couple of facts I decided super facts.

The ten richest billionaires in the World

The numbers below are from Forbes Magazine. To see a list of all billionaires in the world, click here. To see a list with numbers that are updated minute by minute, click here.

  • Elon Musk – 839 billion dollars – source Tesla, SpaceX
  • Larry Page – 257 billion dollars – source Google
  • Sergey Brin – 237 billion dollars – source Google
  • Jeff Bezos – 224 billion dollars – source Amazon
  • Mark Zuckerberg – 222 billion dollars – source Facebook
  • Larry Ellison – 190 billion dollars – source Oracle
  • Bernard Arnault & family – 171 billion dollars – source LVMH
  • Jensen Huang – 154 billion dollars – semiconductors
  • Warren Buffet – 149 billion dollars – source Berkshire Hathaway
  • Amancio Ortega – 148 billion dollars – source Zara

Wealth share of the richest 1%

The richest 1% of the global population owns approximately 38% to 45% of the world’s total wealth, which is more than what 95% of humanity own according to Oxfam. The richest 1% of the global population is not about billionaires, it may very well include you and me. Our World in Data has collected and analyzed the statistics for each country in the world. The top richest 1% in the United States own 34.78% of the wealth in the United States. The top richest 1% in Russia own 48.99% of the wealth in Russia. The top richest 1% in Sweden own 27.49% of the wealth in Sweden. The top richest 1% in the Netherlands own 13.98% of the wealth in the Netherlands. See the graphs below from Our World in Data.

This is a world map showing the share of wealth owned by the richest 1% of the population in each country. The darker the color, the greater the wealth of the 1% in that country. | Super Rich
The share of wealth owned by the richest 1% of the population. Wealth is defined as the total value of non-financial and financial assets (housing, land, deposits, bonds, equities, etc.) held by households, minus their debts. Data source: World Inequality Database (WID.world) (2026) – Learn more about this data OurWorldinData.org/economic-inequality | CC BY

As you can see from the graphs below the extreme inequality is nothing new. Europe was extremely unequal in the 19th century. The 1% owned 58.01% of the wealth in 1900. The United States was relatively equal in 1978 when the 1% owned 21.79% of the wealth. Russia became very unequal since 1995. I suggest that you play around with the graphs yourself .

The graphs show the share of wealth owned by the 1% for Russia, Europe and the United States from 1820 to 2024.
The historic share of wealth owned by the 1% for different countries around the world, starting in 1820. Data source: World Inequality Database (WID.world) (2026) – Learn more about this data OurWorldinData.org/economic-inequality | CC BY

ABBA’s Money, Money, Money

Note: This post is not an implicit suggestion that we should tax billionaires more or less, and not about how or whether we should solve inequality, and it is not about politics. It is just surprising statistics regarding wealth and the reality of inequality.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

To see the Other Super Facts click here

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

55 thoughts on “Super Rich”

  1. Stunning, Thomas. I did not know of this extreme wealth. My goodness, I hope they are using this gift for the good of mankind. Blessing to you….

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  2. I think many of these super rich people do a lot to give to those who are less fortunate. Also, they provide a lot of jobs associated with their businesses, so we shouldn’t be in a hurry to tear them down just because they have had the smarts and good fortune to make a lot of money.

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  3. Those statistics are a bit staggering, and I also hope billonaires are using their money for good. You cited Bill Gates as an example of one who does. There is a perception that many rich people get away without paying taxes, using all kinds of loop holes. I do think they should pay their fair share, proportionate to their income. Here’s another money song that was popular at one time:

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  4. Why not tax them? They can afford it! This is the end result of the flawed capitalist model – everyone can aim to be rich, but not everyone can have a bite of the top cherries. The relentless drive to increase productivity at all costs as well as business models’ greed eliminates healthy competition.

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  7. When I read this information all together like this I do wonder why so much wealth is attributed to companies that contribute nothing needed for the survival of mankind. For want of a better expression, these businesses are so irrelevant at the end of the day.

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    1. Yes, you are right, but I think people spend a lot of money on technology and in combination with the fact that you need innovation and specialized skilled labor makes so that fewer people can enter into the business. But it would be nice if we paid more attention to food businesses and health care.

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  8. Still, we should totally tax billionaires (and that one wannabe trillionaire) more, instead of shoveling yet more money at them via government policies that gut benefits and services for everyone else …

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  13. The inequity of wealth distribution is truly astonishing whenever I run up against it. It’s hard for me to point to any one human being and say they are hundreds of billions of times more capable than any other human being. That noted, I have met three Nobel Laureates in physics — William Fowler, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and Saul Perlmutter — and while none of them were poverty stricken, their abilities and contributions to knowledge certainly didn’t propel them into the top tiers of wealth.

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    1. Wow you met William Fowler, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and Saul Perlmutter, that is very cool. I agree, positive externalities exist, and there are individuals who have contributed to the well being of humanity beyond what any billionaire have and yet they did not get very much paid for it, for example, Jonas Salk, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Albert Einstein and the individuals you mentioned. Positive externalities is especially a thing associated with scientists.

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  16. That a super fact that is hard to fathom, isn’t it? There’s a limit to what they can use for themselves. They have the privilege of investing in other things. Some of them might be philanthropic, hospitals, help for the poor, housing. Some of it we know end up blowing up in thin air or landing on a dime after a nice trip into the sky. It might be an interesting study to see what this 1% does with their money, and how they came by it. The power of having it is choosing how to spend it. If we tax it at a different rate, first many would move it to another location to protect it. But the option is also that it sometimes gets corrupted by the greedy ones who are meant to help those who need it. These thought-provoking facts beg for more inquiry into them. 🙂 Great post, Thomas.

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    1. Thank you so much Marsha for your kind words. I just kept it surface level, the numbers, and I left the complicated stuff for reader, as an exercise, ha ha. Well you are certainly bringing up some interesting points for discussion.

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                1. Yes I wasn’t entirely serious but the thing is that I just posted the statistics, which I think is quite surprising, maybe even shocking, at least to me. However, how to interpret this economically and with respect to society, and what is fair and not, etc., is a much bigger and complicated question that I just don’t know enough about to say much about.

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                  1. Nor do I, but it touched a nerve, obviously! LOL I’m glad you shared the stats, Thomas. And just as it is with our narrative writing, we can’t control where readers are going to take what we write.

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  17. I knew most of this and it’s so gross! And out of all those greed mongers, I think Warren Buffet is the most philanthropic. Sadly, so many believe the Reagan ‘trickle down’ theory. 🙂

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  18. These facts feel uncomfortable, but we need to know these things. I can understand the desire for wealth better now than I did in my anti-materialistic youth. I agree with Marsha that, “It might be an interesting study to see what this 1% does with their money, and how they came by it.”

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