The rankings are published annually in March, so the net worths listed are snapshots taken at that time. There are thousands of billionaires on the Forbes list; the excerpts below show only the wealthiest 10 for each year. ;Legend
2026 The 40th annual
Forbes list of the world's billionaires found a record 3,428 billionaires with a total net worth of $20.1 trillion. This represents an increase of 309 members and $4 trillion compared to 2025. For the first time, Nvidia CEO and founder
Jensen Huang appeared in the top 10. The list also marks for the first time a French citizen was in the top position as well as a non-American for the first time since 2013 when the Mexican
Carlos Slim Helu was the world's richest person. The list, like in 2022, counted 15 under 30 billionaires with the richest of them being
Red Bull heir
Mark Mateschitz with a net worth of $34.7 billion. The youngest of the lot were Clemente Del Vecchio, heir to the
Luxottica fortune shared with his six siblings and stepmother, and
Kim Jung-yang, whose fortune lies in Japanese-South Korean gaming giant
Nexon, both under-20s.
2022 In the 36th annual
Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,668 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.7 trillion, down 97 members from 2021.
2021 In the 35th annual
Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,755 billionaires with a total net wealth of $13.1 trillion, up 660 members from 2020; 86% of these billionaires had more wealth than they possessed last year.
2020 In the 34th annual
Forbes list of the world's billionaires, the list included 2,095 billionaires with a total net wealth of $8 trillion, down 58 members and $700 billion from 2019; 51% of these billionaires had less wealth than they possessed last year. The list was finalized as of 18 March, thus was already partially influenced by the
COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S.
continued to have the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 609, while
China dropped to 324 (when not including
Hong Kong,
Macau and
Taiwan). A record of 2,208 billionaires were in the ranking and the total wealth was $9.1 trillion, up 18% since 2017. For the first time,
Jeff Bezos was listed as the top billionaire due to Amazon's rising stock price that resulted in one person's biggest one-year gain in wealth ($35 billion) since
Forbes started tracking in 1987.
2017 On the 30th anniversary of the
Forbes list of the world's billionaires, for the fourth year in a row,
Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world. The number of billionaires increased 13% to 2,043 from 1,810 in 2016; this was the biggest change in over 30 years of tracking billionaires globally. This is the 17th time that the founder of Microsoft had claimed the top spot.
Amancio Ortega rose from last year's position of number four to second.
Warren Buffett of
Berkshire Hathaway came in third for the second consecutive time, while Mexican telecommunication mogul
Carlos Slim slipped from last year's second position to fourth.
Jeff Bezos of
Amazon,
Mark Zuckerberg of
Facebook and
Michael Bloomberg of
Bloomberg L.P., appeared for the first time on the
Forbes top 10 billionaires list, coming at fifth, sixth and eighth positions, respectively. Zuckerberg became the youngest top 10 billionaire this year at the age of 31.
Larry Ellison,
Charles Koch and
David Koch also slipped from their previous year's positions, with Ellison dropping to seventh from fifth, and the Kochs falling to ninth position from sixth.
2015 In the 29th annual
Forbes list of global billionaires, a record 1,826 billionaires were named with an aggregated net worth of $7.1 trillion compared to $6.4 trillion in the previous year. 46 of the billionaires in this list were under the age of 40. A record number of 290 people joined the list for the first time, of whom 25 percent hailed from China, which produced a world-leading 71 newcomers. The United States came in second, with 57; followed by India, with 28; and Germany, with 23. The United States had the largest number of billionaires with 526.
Russia went down to 88 from 111 in 2014. Russia was placed behind
China,
Germany and
India by the number of billionaires. Self-made billionaires made up the largest number of people on the list with 1,191 positions (over 65 percent), while just 230 (under 13 percent) had wealth through inheritance. The number of billionaires who inherited a portion but were still working to increase their fortunes is 405.
Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world by
Forbes' annual list of the world's billionaires. This was the 16th time that the founder of
Microsoft claimed the top spot.
Carlos Slim came in second for the second consecutive time.
Warren Buffett of
Berkshire Hathaway placed third, while
Amancio Ortega of Spain, slipped down a position from the previous year to number four.
Larry Ellison, the founder of
Oracle, rounded off the top five.
Christy Walton was the highest-ranking female at number eight. America's
Evan Spiegel, co-founder of photo messaging app
Snapchat, became the youngest billionaire this year at age 24. At age 99,
David Rockefeller maintained his position as the oldest billionaire included in the list.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, rose to number 16 with $33.4 billion.
Iceland had a billionaire,
Thor Bjorgolfsson, in the list after a gap of five years.
Guatemala had a billionaire,
Mario Lopez Estrada, for the first time in its history.
2014 Gates added $9 billion to his fortune since 2013 and topped the
Forbes 2014 billionaire list. He had topped the list in 15 of the previous 20 years, but his previous number one ranking was in 2009. Mexican telecommunication mogul
Carlos Slim came in second place after being number one the previous four years.
Zara founder
Amancio Ortega placed third for the second consecutive year. American investor
Warren Buffett was in the top five for the 20th consecutive year, placing fourth. America's
Christy Walton was the highest ranking woman, placing ninth overall.
Aliko Dangote of Nigeria became the first African to enter the top 25, with an estimated net worth of $25 billion. A total of 1,645 people made the 2014 billionaire list, representing a combined wealth of $6.4 trillion. A record total of 1,426 people made the 2013 list, representing $5.4 trillion of assets. The Asian-Pacific region had 386 billionaires and Europe 366. The list also featured a record number of newcomers, 210, representing 42 countries. 60 people from the 2012 list fell below a billion dollars of assets in 2013, and eight others from the 2012 list died. The Asia-Pacific region had the most drop-offs, with 29, followed by the United States with 16. The 2013 list featured 138 women, of which 50 came from the United States. A majority of the list (961 individuals, 67 percent) were entirely self-made; 184 (13 percent) inherited their wealth, and 281 (20 percent) achieved their fortune through a combination of inheritance and business acumen.
Vietnam's
Phạm Nhật Vượng was the first person from that country to be included in this list.
2012 Carlos Slim topped the 2012 list, marking this third consecutive year at the top. Gates placed second but narrowed the gap from 2011 as Slim's fortune fell $5 billion while Gates' rose $5 billion. Warren Buffett remained in third place.
Bernard Arnault of France was the top-ranking European on the list, placing fourth. Colombia's
Alejandro Santo Domingo was the highest-ranked newcomer, inheriting a $9.5 billion stake in
Santo Domingo Group from his father. India's
Lakshmi Mittal was the largest loser as his fortune dropped from $31.1 billion to $20.7 billion as the price of steelmaker
ArcelorMittal fell sharply. To coincide with the release of the 2012 list,
Forbes announced a then-new "Billionaire Real-Time Ticker" updating the wealth of the world's top 50 billionaires in real time. One third of the world's billionaires, 413, came from the United States. China had the second most billionaires with 115, while Russia was third with 101. Asia moved up to 332 billionaires, passing Europe as a region for the first time since the 1990s. The 2011 list included 214 newcomers and the average net worth of those on it increased to $3.7 billion.
2010 Slim narrowly eclipsed Gates to top the billionaire list for the first time. Slim saw his estimated worth surge $18.5 billion to $53.5 billion as shares of
America Movil rose 35 percent. Gates' estimated wealth rose $13 billion to $53 billion, placing him second. Warren Buffett was third with $47 billion.
Christy Walton was the highest-ranking woman, placing 12th overall, with an inherited fortune of $22.5 billion. At age 25, Mark Zuckerberg continued to be the world's youngest self-made billionaire. The 2010 list featured 164 re-entries and 97 true newcomers.
2009 During the
Great Recession, the world's billionaires lost $2 trillion in net worth and the list became 30% smaller than the previous year's list.
2008 Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg, four years after starting the company, joined the list at 23 to become the youngest self-made billionaire.
2007 Forbes recorded a then record of 946 billionaires. There were 178 newcomers, as well as the first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia. Over 66% of the previous year's billionaires became richer. The billionaires' net worth increased in 2007 by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion.
2006 Free cash used by consumers from home equity extraction, known as the
real estate bubble created a total of nearly $5 trillion in 2005, contributing to economic growth worldwide.
2005 The net worth of 2005's 691 billionaires was $2.2 trillion. More than half of them had self-made fortunes.
2004 The founders of
Google,
Sergey Brin and
Larry Page, became billionaires at age 30. • Each hold an essentially equal share in
Walmart.
2003 Oprah Winfrey became the first female African-American billionaire. • Each hold an essentially equal share in
Walmart.
2002 As a result of the market crash caused by the
Dot-com bubble, 83 billionaires dropped off the list from the previous year. • Each hold an essentially equal share in
Walmart.
2001 In 2001,
BET founder
Robert L. Johnson became the first ever African-American billionaire. • Each hold an essentially equal share in
Wal-Mart. Had he been alive in 2001,
Sam Walton would have been the world's wealthiest person.
2000 Gates became the first American to take the top spot of the world's billionaires in 1995 with a net worth of $12.5 billion, and he remained there during the
dot-com bubble's height in 1999 when his fortune peaked at $90 billion. After the dot-com bubble started to collapse in 2000, his wealth dropped to $60 billion, although he remained at the top of the list.
1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1987-1989 ==Statistics==