Less than half of all countries have billionaires

NEW YORK: Less than half of all countries have a billionaire among their citizens, while a fifth of those have just one.

This year, 78 nations and semi-autonomous territories have at least one billionaire on the list, the same number as last year. The richest member of any country is Tesla cofounder and CEO Elon Musk with estimated net worth of $342 billion.

Among mainland China’s 450 billionaires, the richest is TikTok parent company ByteDance cofounder Zhang Yiming with net worth of $65.5 billion, India’s wealthiest is Mukesh Ambani with $92.5 billion net worth, who chairs Reliance Industries, the multinational conglomerate founded by his late father.

The US dominates the top of the ranking, with only two non-Americans in the “$100 Billion Club.” One is Amancio Ortega ($124 billion), the richest person in Spain and cofounder of the retailer Inditex, known for the Zara fast fashion brand. The other is Bernard Arnault ($178 billion), the wealthiest in France, whose fashion and cosmetics empire LVMH includes the likes of Louis Vuitton and Sephora.

Three countries have joined or rejoined since last year: Albania and Peru, which have one billionaire each, and Saudi Arabia, where Forbes has identified 14 new billionaires and one returnee. The Saudi fortunes stem from a wide range of sources, from banking to pharmaceuticals to broadcasting. The richest is that of investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud with net worth of $16.5 billion. Peru’s richest person, Eduardo Hochschild ($2.4 billion), returns to the list this year thanks to the rising share price of his mining company, while Albania has its first-ever billionaire Samir Mane with $1.4 billion worth. He has created the country’s largest supermarket and retail electronics chains.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh, Panama and Uruguay no longer have any billionaires. Muhammed Aziz Khan ($1.1 billion), who chairs the Bangladeshi energy company Summit Group, has been living in Singapore and finally transferred his citizenship there (the city-state doesn’t allow dual citizenship). He’s not the wealthiest of his new nationality, though—that title belongs to the paint manufacturing entrepreneur Goh Cheng Liang ($13 billion).