How Many Billionaires Are In The U.S.?

Billionaires play a vital role in the world economy, politics, and philanthropy. There are almost 2700 billionaires worldwide, and over a quarter of them live in the United States. To get to know in detail how many billionaires are in the U.S., keep on reading.

Although the number of billionaires decreased amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but increased again in 2021, the total wealth of the United States grew from $240 billion in 1990 to $4.18 trillion in March 2021.

According to this data, the total in March 2021 was 17 times higher than the total wealth in 1990. While their real wealth fell by 6%, around -$98 billion, from 2000 to 2010 due to the great recession, it rose by 160 percent, around $2.57 trillion from 2010 to March 2021.

The number of billionaires in the United States grew more than nine times between 1990 and March 2020. The total wealth of the top three billionaires grew over eleven times over the same period. Approximately it jumped from $23.8 billion to $279 billion today.

How many billionaires are in the world?

According to an annual ranking of the people who are supposed to be with a net worth of $1 billion or more by the American Business Magazine Forbes, the World’s Billionaires. Forbes’ first list of billionaires in the World was published in 1987.

In 1981, Malcolm Forbes, a fabulous wealthy magazine publisher, planned to pull together the World’s four hundred wealthiest Americans. Forbes came with a different era of magazine publishing and the very first Forbes magazine with a list worth more than $2 billion.

In other words, a total fortune of $1 billion and much more makes them the wealthiest people in the World. The actual net worth of each individual on the list must have the wealth estimate in United States dollars, and this stated wealth is based on their documented assets while accounting for debts and other factors.

Such a list of American billionaires or global ones excludes Royalty and Dictators who get the wealth from their positions. In other words, this ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals; however, it excludes those who need more clarification on their wealth.

Recent years have affected many of the World’s wealthiest people, as the number of billionaires has declined from 2,668 in 2022 to 2,540 this year. Even the billionaire’s wealth has dropped by $500 billion to $12.2 trillion as economic disturbance badly hit the public and private sectors.

Almost half of the planet’s billionaires saw a decrease in their wealth compared to a year ago. Around 254 people lost their billionaire status. It is not that 2020 was disastrous for all the ultra-rich people, but some people got extra wealth gains.

Annual rankings to determine how many billionaires are in the world

Forbes usually publishes the annual rankings by Forbes in March with the net worth lists. Such lists show the top ten wealthiest billionaires every year. This particular published list will determine whether the status of the individual has changed from the previous ranking. At the same time, it will decide whether the person’s wealth increased or decreased from the previous ranking.

According to the 37th annual Forbes List, there are 2,640 billionaires with a net wealth of $12.2 trillion. In this list, half of the individuals are poorer as compared to the previous year, including Elon Musk, Jezz Bezos, and Bill Gates.

For the first time, a non-American made it possible to achieve the top ranking since 2013, and a French citizen ranked at the first position. In 2013 a Mexican, Carlos Slim Helu, was the wealthiest person on the list. One can check Bloomberg Billionaire Index to know the World’s 500 wealthiest people while comparing their fortunes and other track returns.

How many billionaires are there in the U.S. in 2020?

The 34th Forbes annual list of the World’s billionaires includes almost 2,095 billionaires containing a total worth of $8 trillion. Compared to 2019, there is a down of 58 members and $700 billion, and 51% of these billionaires had less wealth than the previous year.

List of the world’s wealthiest persons

Previously, in 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ranked at the top for the first time and became the multi-millionaire in the ranking of billionaires in the World. He even surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates who topped the list in the previous 24 years.

Then in 2022, Elon Musk surpassed Bezos as the exclusiveness of the World’s richest person after four years. In 2023, French businessman Bernard Arnault beat Elon Musk in just one year. Moreover, Arnault was the first French person who topped the list of the World’s billionaires.

Billionaires still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring taxes to make elimination for the heirs on unrealized capital gains in the process. Multi-billionaires take advantage of tax deductions to offset reported income.

Usually, billionaires invest their wealth in publicly traded stocks; therefore the net worth of any richest person can fluctuate with the market valuation. For instance, we witnessed a surge in the net worth of Elon Musk in 20021 due to an increase in electric market share price, and Tesla shares rose from $264.51 to $352.26.

Simultaneously, in 2022, we saw a drop in net worth due to the falling share of Tesla, as he owns 13 percent of them. Another factor that affected the fall of net worth was Musk sold many of his claims to finance the acquisition of Twitter. All these circumstances made him lose his top position as the World’s richest person to Bernard Arnault.

Tesla’s price again moved upward early this year, which makes us expect that Elon Musk will again be in the top position of the World’s wealthiest people. At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta Platforms (META) and CEO, fell out of the ranking of the top ten wealthiest people in the World.

He was dropped from the list as the company’s share price appeared with a disappointing earnings report.

Bernard Arnault

This recent year was the luckiest for Bernard Arnault, who stood as number one in the World’s billionaire list for the first time in French history. Due to sky-high record sales and profit from his shares in luxury goods, leviathan LVMH owns 75 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Marc Jacobs, Bulgari, Sephor, and Christian Dior.

With an estimated net worth of $211 billion due to an additional $53 billion to his fortune due to an 18 percent jump in LVMH stock, Arnault assured him the most significant gain compared to any other billionaire on this planet earth.

Most of the wealth came from the massive stake in Christian Dior, the holding company that controls 41.4 percent of LVMH. His shares in Christian Dior and an additional 6.2 percent in LVMH made his family-owned holding company Group Familial Arnault at the top.

One must remember that they started the billionaire ranking in 1987; this is the first time a French citizen has ranked in the World’s billionaires ranking. According to Forbes, Arnault’s net worth skyrocketed from $72 billion to $158 billion from 2018 to 2022.

Arnault was an engineer by profession with built-in business acumen, so he started working for his father’s construction company. He converted his engineering company into a real estate company in 1979.

Elon Musk

Elong Musk held the top ranking last year; however, he slipped to number two due to a drastic fall in his shares of electric car maker Tesla. His shares fell by 50% as he announced his $44 billion takeover of Twitter as investors were afraid that Musk was adding another CEO job to his workload. They were also concerned about the $23 billion of Tesla stocks he sold to finance the Twitter deal.

He was born in South Africa but moved to Canada, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Economics. After enrolling in a graduate physics program at Stanford University, he deferred attendance and launched Zip2, the earliest online navigation service.

This younger version of a billionaire is the founder of six companies worth just $24.6 billion in 2020. His private spaceflight firm SpaceX is skyrocketing in valuation that will be worth $39 billion less than a year ago.

Jeff Bezos

Founder of Amazon, who started his Seattle garage in 1994, made Jeff Bezos one of the wealthiest people in the World. He is the World’s third richest person, worth $151.9 billion. He resigned as the company’s CEO in July 2021 and now serves as an Executive Chairman.

Gautam Adani and family

A well-known self-made infrastructure tycoon, the Adani Group, has considerable holdings in real estate, infrastructure, commodities, power generation, and transmission. By September 2020, Adani scored a 74 percent stake in Mumbai International Airport, making him India’s largest airport operator.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates co-founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with a net worth of $115 billion. He founded the software giant Microsoft along with Paul Allen; he eventually sold away much of his stake in the company while retaining just 1 percent while investing the rest in stocks and other assets.

Bill Gates entered the $100 billion club after Microsoft’s share price surged post-earnings. One must know that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the World’s largest private charitable foundation.

Warren Buffet

One of the most successful investors, Warren Buffet, is famous as the Oracle of Omaha. He runs Berkshire Hathaway, owning 60 companies, including Geico Insurance, Dairy Queen Restaurant, and Duracell.

The total net worth of Warren Buffet is around $108 billion. He was the son of a Congressman in the United States, and he bought his first stock at 11 and filed his first tax return at 14.

Buffet has dedicated much of his wealth to philanthropic purposes and spent around $41 in charity, mainly towards the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and his children’s charity.

He purchased his first shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathway in 1962. In 2022, people expected his successor to be the head of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations. However, he is 92 years old but still serves as CEO.

Larry Ellison

With a net worth of $102 billion, Larry co-founded Oracle, the software firm. He started the firm in 1977, quit as the company’s CEO in 2014, and then functioned as chairman of the board and chief technology officer.

Since December 2018, Ellison is also on the board of Tesla, as he also purchased 3 million shares. Additionally, he owns almost the whole Hawaiian island of Lanai. Ellison founded software development laboratories in addition to Oates and Miner.

His Oracle acquires many companies, including human resources management systems providing PeopleSoft, customer relationship management applications, enterprise infrastructure software providing BEA systems, and hardware and software development.

Larry Page

The co-founder of Google with a net worth of $98.4 billion and ranked ninth among the World’s wealthiest people. He is a heavy investor in Planetary Resources, the famed space exploration company. He also funds flying cars by some companies, including Kitty Hawk and Opener.

Google is the World’s best dominant internet search engine, responsible for 92 percent of global search requests. Moreover, the company purchased YouTube, a platform for many videos.

Sergey Brin

Alphabet’s co-founder and board member, with a net worth of $94.5 billion, makes him the ninth richest person in the World. He was co-founder of Google with Larry Page in 1998, which became public in 2004, and Alphabet in 2015.

Steve Ballmer

He owns the Los Angeles Clippers with a net worth of $94 billion, putting him in ninth position among the World’s wealthiest persons. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and became CEO in 2000.

Details about billionaires in America

Most billionaires hail from the United States more than any other country, with 735 American citizens on the ranking and the total worth of U.S. billionaires around $4.5 trillion. At the same time, China held the second position with 562 billionaires, followed by India and Germany.

The individuals on billionaires belong to an exclusive club that portrays more power. Most billionaires are technology giants, and they invest much of their wealth in their companies, where they are CEOs or founders.

The United States is the home of over a quarter of the World’s billionaires, as 720 among 2700 exist globally. However, the country has the most billionaires compared to any other country, but the percentage has been shrinking recently.

In 2010 there is 40 percent of the World’s billionaire population used to live in the United States, but gradually it decreased to 27%. The millionaires on the list of the United States index made their fortune from a wide range of industries, including tech, automobiles, video games, and asset management.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s fortunes have fluctuated as Amazon and Tesla stock prices in recent years. Most billionaires in the United States derived their wealth from finances and investments more than any other industry.

The financial sector enhanced 104 billionaires in 2010; in 2021, it grew to 170. The technology industry has brought massive growth in billionaires over the decade, even with a significant number from 42 to 142.

Billionaires by gender in 2010-2020 in the United States

According to the survey in March 2020, there were more than several male billionaires compared to every female billionaire. Gender disparity among billionaires shows that economic inequality exists among men and women, even on the economic ladder.

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the most affluent woman in the World, with a net worth of $91.5 billion. She derived her total net worth from her holdings in L’Oreal, the World’s largest cosmetics company.

List of American Billionaires

In the list of affluent Americans, people are ranked by net worth. It depends on an annual assessment of wealth and assets by Forbes, in addition to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The list of Forbes 400 Richest Americans has been published annually since 1982. Here we will provide you the list of American billionaires:

Billionaires usually come within growing economy places; more billionaires would be there where the economy is growing. The ratio of billionaires in any society will depict the richness of culture, and even that society will be equal.

However, billionaires affect the political system as well. Still, in the past few years, we have noticed that the political system in the United States has delivered a marginal tax rate of 37 percent, a billionaire president, and 332 new billionaires hostile to the democratic process while showing significant successive peaks of inequality.

While discussing capitalism, historians say that the living age is currently about capitalism that is full of chaos, where capital has become more volatile and liquid. However, it should be in staid order, widely sharing the prosperity that lies under the postwar industrial economy.

The economy expands when they invest in enhancing productivity; in other words, they invest in productive stuff, including factories, ships, and trucks, to make more money doing so. This way, there is an option of shipping the stuff abroad while booking enormous profits but putting Americans out of work.

This situation can create a difference between severing the finance industry from the real economy. However, this highly financialized, post-industrial economy must have proper administration and deregulated banking to organise labour.

Who are the wealthiest people in the world, and how do they determine this thing?

The list of the wealthiest people in the world has changed significantly during the past few years due to various factors; specifically, company value rises and falls simultaneously.

Additionally, people used to give away their money in multiple investments and stocks.

The identity of the wealthiest person changes as many people believe that Jeff Bezos is the richest person as they think he is the founder of Amazon and his net worth is the value of Amazon.

Some believe Bill Gates is the wealthiest person on Earth as he founded Microsoft and is generously involved in philanthropic activities. However, to find the wealthiest person on this planet, Forbes has hired a team of fifty individuals from several countries to track the actions of billionaires to find the richest one.

The fundamental survey is about enlisting the people who may qualify for the list. Typically, Forbes receives three types of responses for such analysis: some people try to inflate their wealth, some cooperate and leave out details, and others refuse to answer any questions.

These Forbes staff then scrutinise these individual’s business deals and estimate the valuable assets, including lands, homes, vehicles, artwork, etc. They even conduct interviews to determine and improve the estimate of any individual’s holdings.

The final step is setting the positions of such individuals in publicly traded stock and their price to market before a month of publication. They try to determine the companies’ prices by the prevailing price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratio.

After knowing the accurate balance, they subtract the debt from assets to get the final estimate of an individual’s worth in United States currency. Stock prices can fluctuate rapidly, so the person’s actual wealth and ranking at the time of publication may vary from the list’s publication time.

If any living individual disperse their money among his family members will come under their single-family fortune. On the other hand, a deceased billionaire’s fortune will not be the same and would not be a total net worth in a single listing. Remember that Royal families and dictators will be excluded from this list of American billionaires.

The highest number of billionaires

We will guide you about the highest number of billionaires on Earth and the number in each country.

Conclusion

While knowing how many billionaires there are in the U.S., we must see the world’s richest man is Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury brand LVMH. At the same time, the wealthiest woman in the world is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, with a net worth of $91.5 billion as she is owning L’Oreal cosmetic company.

The net worth of individuals changes drastically as of the rise and fall of stock prices and can take the overall cap up or down. One needs to become a technological innovator or luxury details to determine the wealthiest billionaires ranking and total wealth of U.S. billionaires.

Typically, the greatest fortunes on the billionaire’s list are with the people who come with the fundamental traits of drive, creativity, and connections. All these essential traits made them build the most prominent companies with incredible productivity.

The U.S. wealth landscape comes with extremes as it has ample opportunities for earning substantial wealth. However, wealth inequality and income disparity are higher in the United States than in other peer countries.