With significant declines in stock and other markets in 2022, the wealth of billionaires worldwide fell by 3.5%.
In the early years of the pandemic, when most of us turned to online products and markets, worked from home, and went about our daily lives in a completely different, until then seemingly nightmarish way, more and more billionaires and entrepreneurs saw their fortunes disappear.
A typical example was the founder and CEO of Amazon, the largest e-commerce company in the world, who increased the profits of his giant and his portfolio like no other. But the return to normality has brought changes and reduced earnings for the billionaire caste, according to a new report by Altrata.
Decrease in total wealth
Altrata's study notes that there were 3,194 billionaires in the world in 2022, down 3.5% from 2021. The same source finds that the total wealth of billionaires was also down 5.5% in 2022, reaching 11.1 trillion dollars from 13.1 trillion in 2021.
A significant loser of 2022 is Jeff Bezos, whose net worth decreased by 57 billion—Dollars due to the 38% drop in Amazon stock on March 10.
A small but significant decrease was also seen by Elon Musk, losing 39 billion dollars, which dropped him from the first place of the wealthiest people in the world according to the Forbes list.
The same report explains that the decline in wealth is due to a downturn in capital markets, which has led to rising interest rates, inflation and increased investor caution, from which even the billionaire ranks have not been spared.
Accordingly, Forbes magazine explains that these amounts are decreasing for the second year in a row with the political and social upheavals affecting both public and private markets.
Which countries in the world have the most affluent people?
Despite the above declines, the USA and, indeed, New York remain the city with the most billionaires for 2022 - with 136 to be exact - according to Altrata's declines. Second in line follows Hong Kong, with 122 billionaires, and then San Francisco, with 84.
The United States had the most billionaires in 2022, with 955 people. China follows it with 357 people, while in third place is Germany with 173 billionaires. Asia, however, saw the most significant drop in billionaires, down 7.1% to 835 people.
Latin America and the Caribbean took the next biggest hit, down 3.4%, leaving only 141 billionaires, while North America was the third-biggest decliner, with the number of billionaires down 2.3% to 1,011 individuals.
According to the data of the Forbes list, Greece is represented in the list of billionaires by Maria Angelicoussis, Marianna Latsi, Telis Mistakidis, Philip Niarchos, Vardis Vardinogiannis and Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
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