8 Facts: Counting Billionaires
There is only one billionaire for every 3.2 million people on Earth.
January 22, 2015
1. Worldwide, there were 2,325 billionaires (measured in U.S. dollar terms) as of 2014.
2. This is only 0.00003% — three one-hundred-thousandths of a percent — of the world’s population.
3. Put another way, there are about 3.2 million non-billionaires for every billionaire on the planet.
4. The number of the world’s billionaires is equal to only about a fifth of the year-round population of Davos, Switzerland (population 11,200).
5. Davos is the exclusive resort village in the Swiss Alps where many of the world’s richest people and corporate leaders gather to discuss world affairs at the annual World Economic Forum in January.
6. In 2009, the year after the global financial crisis, there were only 1,360 U.S. dollar billionaires.
7. In the five years since then, the number of U.S. dollar billionaires has increased by 70%.
8. That was more than ten times the cumulative 5.9% increase in the world population over this period.
Source: Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014, with additional analysis by The Globalist Research Center
Takeaways
There is only one billionaire for every 3.2 million people on Earth.
Billionaires make up only 0.00003% -- three one-hundred-thousandths of a percent -- of the world's population.
In the five years since the 2008 financial crisis, the number of US dollar billionaires has increased by 70%.
