Volatile stock markets, cratering oil prices and a stronger dollar led to a dynamic reshuffling of wealth around the globe and a drop in 10-figure fortunes for the first time since 2009. For our 30th annual guide to the world’s richest, we found 1,810 billionaires, down from a record 1,826 a year ago.
Their aggregate net worth was $6.48 trillion, $570 billion less than last year. It was also the first time since 2010 that the average net worth of a billionaire dropped – it is now $3.6 billion, $300 million less than last year.
Behind these figures is a story of huge upheaval: 221 people fell off the list, while 198 newcomers joined the ranks; another 29 people from 2015 died, while 29 who’d previously fallen off climbed back on.
The reshuffling starts at the top. Only two people in the top 20 managed to hold onto their ranks. Bill Gates remains the richest person in the world with a net worth of $75 billion, despite being $4.2 billion poorer than a year ago. He has been No. 1 one for three years in a row and topped the list 17 out of 22 years. (In the 30 years Forbes has tracked global wealth, only five people have held the title of richest person on the planet; three of those five still rank among the four richest in the world.)
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had the best year of all billionaires. The 31-year-old added $11.2 billion to his fortune. He and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos both make their first appearance in the top 10 of Forbes' annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest.
Among the most notable newcomers are Cameron Mackintosh, the first theater producer to make the billionaire ranks; WeWork’s Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey; and Pinterest’s Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp. Neumann, Silbermann and Sharp are three of a record 66 billionaires under the age of 40. The youngest billionaire in the world is a 19-year-old Norwegian heiress, Alexandra Andresen, who has a 42% stake in her family’s business.
The Forbes billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth taken on Feb. 12; we used stock prices and exchange rates from that day. Some fortunes could have changed considerably since then.
Click ahead to see the 10 richest people on the planet, then visit Forbes for the full list.
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