World on Track to Have Almost 4,000 Billionaires Within Next Five Years

The super-rich are hoarding wealth at such a rapid pace that hundreds more billionaires will be created in the coming years, bringing the total to almost 4,000 as ordinary people face the erosion of public services, and food and fuel inflation.

There are already 3,110 billionaires in the world and this is forecast to rise by 25% to 3,915 by 2031, according to analysis from estate agent Knight Frank.  

Saudi Arabia is expected to see the fastest growth in billionaires percentage-wise, the analysis found. It has 23 now and is on course to have 65 in 2031. Poland is on track to have 29 billionaires by the same year, up from 13 today.

In the past five years, there has been a 300% increase in the number of people worth at least $30m (£22m), rising from 162,191 in 2021 to 713,626 now.

A record number of new billionaires was created last year, according to research by anti-poverty charity Oxfam, which estimated the amount of wealth hoarded at $18.3tn globally.

In a report published in January, the charity said massive and increasing wealth hoarding was eroding democracy around the world while accelerating global hunger and food insecurity.  

It also highlighted how in the UK, the richest 56 individuals now have more wealth than 27 million people combined. It called for taxes on the super rich aimed specifically at curbing their political power, as well as restrictions on lobbying and revolving doors, a ban on financing political campaigns and legislation to ensure media independence from the ultra-wealthy.  

​“We cannot wish poverty away,” Kenyan grassroots activist Wanjira Wanjiru said in the report, “it must be systemically eradicated, just as it has been systemically entrenched.”