Billionaire boom: in 2031 there will be almost 4,000 in the world

There are 3,110 billionaires in the world, and in the coming years this number will increase further. Could be reach around 4,000 (3,915 to be exact) by 2031, an increase of 25%. These are the data from an analysis by the real estate agency Knight Frank and reported by the Guardian.

The multimillionaire class is also expanding rapidly, with the number of people worth at least $30 million worldwide rising from 162,191 in 2021 to 713,626 today – an increase of more than 300%, it found Knight Frank. As Liam Bailey, head of research at the real estate agency, explained, this wealth of billionaires and millionaires has been “boosted” by profits from the world of technology, in particular artificial intelligence. “The ability to grow a company has never been higher,” he said. “This has fueled the ability to make large fortunes quickly, enhanced by technology and AI.”

According to the research, the number of billionaires is expected to grow fastest in Saudi Arabia, thanks to oil, more than doubling from 23 in 2026 to a forecast of 65 in 2031. The population of Scrooges in Poland, for example, is also expected to more than double from 13 to 29 in the same period, with an 81% increase in Sweden, from 32 to 58.

This comes as the gap between the world’s richest and poorest continues to grow. Last year’s World Inequality Report found that fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire poorest half of humanity. Also last year, Oxfam found that billionaires have a combined wealth of $18 trillion. And according to Forbes, he is the CEO of Tesla, Elon Muskthe richest person in the world, with a net worth of $785.5 billion.

In second place is Larry Pageone of the founders of Google, with a net worth of 272.5 billion dollars, while in third place is the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezoswith a net worth of $259 billion. Interestingly, North America is now home to just under a third of the world’s population of billionaires but is expected to soon be overtaken by Asia-Pacific by 2031. At that point, billionaires in this region are expected to make up 37.5% of the total, compared to 27.8% in North America.