How the world’s billionaires stack up over the past 15 years
I was bored and somehow stumbled on The World’s Billionaires wikipedia article. As I was scrolling through it, I got curious about who have been on the list the longest. Who are the new players and how their wealth is changing.
Wealth is only a secondary measure of the impact these people and their businesses have on the world. I’m not suggesting in any way that only these people have had an impact or they will continue to do so.
People like Bill Gates have not only build great businesses but also contributed through their foundations. Mark Zuckerberg shows up for the first time in 2016 but has already committed to donating 99% of his wealth. This list doesn’t include people like Elon Musk who are making the world a better place in profound and lasting ways.
Observations:
- Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are the only ones who are in the list for all 16 years. Another one is Carlos Slim (if you consider Carlos Slim/Carlos Slim and family as the same).
- Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg showed up for the first time in 2016 and all belong to technology business in social, retail, and finance.
- The youngest on the list across all 16 years is Mark Zuckerberg (32 years old) and oldest is Karl Albrecht (92 years old).
- Overall positions by country — United States, India, Mexico, Germany, and Spain.
- United States billionaires are mostly tech businesses and French businesses are mostly fashion conglomerates.
- All billionaires have stayed with the business that they started except the ones who inherited wealth (e.g. the Walton children).
Distribution by age range:
Here is the graph showing wealth and positions of top 10 billionaires over the past 16 years:
Hope a lot more people have a bigger positive impact in 2017.
