In Billionaire League Tables, US Keeps the Gold

The mega-rich may or may not be, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, different from you and me. But one thing’s for sure: There are a lot more of them today.

That’s according to the latest annual global wealth report from international real estate consulting firm Knight Frank, which found that the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (or those with a net worth of more than $100 million) increased by 7% last year. The really, really rich got really, really richer. 

Tech vs. Everyone Else

The US is still the global powerhouse of wealth creation — home to around 905,000, or nearly 37%, of the world’s population of individuals with a net worth of at least $10 million, which is roughly double the amount of second-place China. A full 30% of the world’s billionaires are in the US, more than any other nation, and the group owns a decade-high 40% of all billionaire wealth, the report says. Still, the club of affluence is getting more and more international; last year, Africa saw a nearly 18% spike in high-net worth individuals.

So how is everyone making their money?

• According to the report, it’s manufacturing — not tech — that has created the most billionaires in the past decade. Since 2014, manufacturing has created 509 billionaires, tech has created 443, finance 353, and fashion and retail 318.
• But tech billionaires hold $2.6 trillion in wealth, more than any other industry. That group includes eight people with at least $50 billion in net worth, also more than any other industry.

Just a Number: Baby boomers remain the custodians of most of the world’s wealth. And the age of the average billionaire is now 65.7 years old, higher than the 10-year average, according to the report. Meanwhile, tech billionaires represent the youngest cohort of the bunch, averaging a spry age of… 57.2 years old. Check that out: Our little software engineers in Silicon Valley are all grown up. Hey, maybe that’s why they seem to have taken such a sudden interest in conservative politics.