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Lorraine Grisez
Staff Writer
Forbes Magazine released its 28th Annual World’s Billionaire issue today. Topping the list after 4 years at number 2, is Bill Gates with a net worth of $76 billion. Gates has topped the list for 15 of the last 20 years and pushed telecom mogul, Carlos Slim Helu, into the second place slot with his net worth valued at $72 billion.
The net worth of all 1,645 worldwide billionaires is up one trillion dollars from last year’s total net worth; now standing at a staggering $6.4 trillion.
The average net worth of the billionaires on the list is $4.7 billion. 1,080 members on the list are self-made billionaires. This marks the first year when a net worth of $31 billion was needed for billionaires to break into the top 20.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg comes in at number 21 by more than doubling his net worth from $13.3 billion in 2013 to $28.5 billion after shares of his social network site skyrocketed. Zuckerberg is the list’s biggest net worth gainer.
This year’s biggest loser is Eiek Batista, the Brazilian businessman whose net worth plummeted from $10.6 billion in 2013 to less than $300 million in 2014.
Also dropping off the list completely for what can only be called the most philanthropic move made in history, is Norway’s Olva Thon. Thon turned over his estimated $5.75 billion net worth to an organization to fund public good, including medical research.
This year also showed 25% increase in women on the list, including Christy Walton at number 9. Walton is the daughter of the founder of Walmart and her net worth of $36.7 billion beat out the list’s next wealthy woman, Liliane Bettencourt’s net worth of $34.5 billion.
This year, 268 billionaires were new to the list – 50 of which were from the US and 37 from China. The youngest billionaire on the list is also a newcomer. Perenna Kei hits the list at number 1,284 with a net worth of $1.3 billion at the impressive young age of 24.
The entire list can be viewed at http://www.forbes.com/billionaires, but rest assured – I’m not on it. Yet…
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