Statistics
Ranks Of Billionaires Around World Expanded, With Most Additions From China - Report
Although the country has seen more economic volatility of late, China has been minting new billionaires at a rapid pace, fresh figures show.
The number of billionaires in the world grew by 99 to a record high of 2,188 last year, with the majority of new entries coming from Greater China, according to the new Hurun Global Rich List, the South China Morning Post reported.
The mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan provided 90 of the new entries, taking the number of Chinese billionaires to 568. China overtook the US, which had 535. China’s billionaires had a combined net worth of $1.4 trillion, the report said.
The world’s wealthiest person, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, held onto the top spot with a net worth of $80 billion.
Beijing is the billionaire capital of the world with 100 such persons, followed by New York with 95 billionaires. Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen were among the top ten cities for numbers of super-rich, the report quoted Hurun as saying.
Nine Chinese billionaires were among the top 100 in the Hurun Global Rich List last year.
Wang Jianlin, chairman of property and entertainment conglomerate Wanda, was the richest in China and 21st in the world, with a net worth of $26 billion.
Wang’s wealth surpassed Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s property tycoon who was once the richest man in Asia.
