Billionaires

A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000; a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually major currencies such as the United States dollar, the euro, or the pound sterling. The American business magazine Forbes produces a complete global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year, and updates an Internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916; as of 2015, there are over 1,800 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, with a combined wealth of over US$7 trillion. According to a 2017 Oxfam report, just eight billionaires own as much combined wealth as "half the human race".

According to the Forbes report released in March 2015, there are currently 1,826 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, from 66 countries, with a combined net worth of $7.05 trillion, which is more than the combined GDP of 152 countries.The majority of billionaires are male, but there are 197 female billionaires as of 2015. There are currently seven black billionaires and ten LGBT billionaires. The United States has the largest number of billionaires of any country, with 536 as of 2015, while China, India and Russia are home to 213, 90 and 88 billionaires respectively. Among American billionaires, the average age is 66 years; there are 46 billionaires under the age of 40 globally as of 2015.

According to a 2016 Oxfam report, the wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400 million. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people between the World's Billionaires increased by $500bn (£350bn) to $1.76tn. Runaway income inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much as the poorest half of the world's population. This number has fallen dramatically from 388 as recently as 2010. More recently, in 2017, an Oxfam report noted that just eight billionaires own as much combined wealth as "half the human race".

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