During the pandemic, from late 2019 to mid-December 2020, more than 2,200 billionaires in the world have collectively become richer by $1.9 trillion, Forbes calculated.
According to the publication, the combined wealth of the richest people in the world at the moment is $11.4 trillion against $9.5 trillion by the end of 2019. Thus, the growth of their well-being was 20%.
Chinese billionaires are the most wealthy — 60%. Leading among them is the owner of the bottled water company Nongfu Spring, Zhong Shanshan, whose fortune grew from $2 billion in April to $62.5 billion in December.
In the United States, the capital has increased the most in the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk — by $17 billion. Now he is the third richest person in the world.
Dior and Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault and L’Oreal co-owner Franсoise Bettencourt-Meyers distinguished themselves among the French billionaires ranked third in capital growth in 2020. They provided more than half of the growth in the combined capital of the richest French.
The countries in which the richest people increased their wealth the most in 2020:
China (+ $750 billion)
USA (+ $560 billion)
France (+ $95 billion)
India (+ $75 billion)
Hong Kong (+ $60 billion)
Germany and Japan (+ $55 billion)
Singapore (+ $45 billion)
Australia (+ $35 billion)
Sweden (+ $30 billion)
In early 2020, the combined wealth of the richest people was a record $6.1 trillion. By mid-March, amid the spread of the coronavirus, it fell by $1 trillion.
