World's richest billionaires saw their wealth soar by 25% in 2019

The world's richest man lost money, however

David Maclean
New York
Saturday 28 December 2019 17:55 GMT
Comments

It's boom time for billionaires: 2019 saw the net worth of the world's richest 500 people soar by 25 per cent.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index says the collective net worth of the world's 500 wealthiest individuals totals $5.9 trillion, up $1.2 trillion in just 12 months.

American billionaires alone added $500bn to their wealth, with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg adding $27.3bn and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates adding $22.7bn.

Just 52 people on the list saw their wealth decline in 2019, according to Bloomberg. Among them was Amazon's Jeff Bezos' worth fell by $9bn, mainly due to his divorce settlement.

Don't feel too sorry for him, though, as he remains the world's richest person.

The report drops amid a Democratic primary campaign in which wealth disparity is a hot topic.

A report earlier this year found that income inequality in the United States is at its highest point since data started being collected more than 50 years ago.

Progressive politicians have recently called for tougher tax policies for the ultra-rich; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for people to "tax the rich" as Democrats argued over Elizabeth Warren's tax proposal at a primary debate in October.

Warren has made a wealth tax a centrepiece of her campaign. The proposal calls for imposing a 2 per cent tax on the wealth of people with more than $50m in assets, while those with assets more than $1bn would face a 3 per cent tax.

The increase in billionaires' wealth also comes in the first full year since the passage of the Republican tax law.

A report by the Congressional Research Service in May of this year said the tax law's effect was smaller on the economy than many forecasters had predicted and growth was not consistent "with the direction and size of the supply-side incentive effects one would expect from the tax changes."

Agencies contributed to this report

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in