The number of billionaires worldwide continues to grow, and the amount of wealth they are holding is quickly accelerating, according to a report published by Oxfam ahead of the start of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Monday.
The anti-poverty and development organization, which releases an annual report on global inequality ahead of the Davos meeting, said the world’s roughly 3,000 billionaires held a combined fortune of $18.3 trillion last year.
Adjusted for inflation, their wealth has increased by more than 80% since March 2020. At the same time, nearly half of the global population continues to live in poverty, Oxfam said.
The report draws on data from multiple sources, including Forbes estimates of billionaire wealth, World Bank figures and the UBS Global Wealth Report.
Billionaire wealth grew by about 16% last year – three times faster than the average rate of growth in previous years, Oxfam said. The world’s 12 richest individuals now own more wealth than the poorest half of the global population, or more than 4 billion people.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, earns in four seconds what an average person makes in a year, Oxfam said. It was calculated that Musk would need to give away more than $4,500 every second for his fortune to begin shrinking.
Other wealth comparisons cited by Oxfam:
- The four richest men in the world are worth more than all the cows on the planet combined.
- The world's billionaires could buy more than 600 billion Labubu "blind box" collectible figures, and it would take nearly 6 million years to unpack them all.
- Billionaires earn an average of $6,000 during a 20-minute power nap and $145,000 during an eight-hour night’s sleep.
Some 65 world leaders are due to participate in this year's forum in Davos, Switzerland – a record number – along with dozens of central bank chiefs and finance ministers, plus titans of the business world.
Oxfam is one of the meeting's most steadfast critics, arguing the gathering of global elite too often pays only lip service to the problems of the poor.
Oxfam also warned that growing economic power among billionaires is increasingly translating into political influence, particularly in the United States, which it said is eroding democratic systems.
Forbes recently wrote that U.S. President Donald Trump has "presided over the most lucrative presidency in American history," adding billions to his net worth, largely through cryptocurrency ventures.
Trump is leading the largest-ever U.S. delegation to Davos and is scheduled to address the conference on Wednesday. Oxfam's report said 100 billionaire families spent a record $2.6 billion during the most recent U.S. presidential election campaign.
The report also raised concerns about global media concentration, writing that "over half of the world’s largest media companies have billionaire owners, and nine of the top 10 social media companies in the world are run by just six billionaires."
