More billionaires were created than ever before last year, and they're richer too
Call it the billionaire boom.
The world’s billionaires experienced the biggest wealth increase ever in 2017, with aggregate wealth among these 2,158 (and counting) individuals growing by $1.4 trillion to $8.9 trillion, a 19% leap, according to the 5th annual Billionaires Insight Report from UBS and PwC.
To put that 19% in perspective, the average pace of growth over the last five years has been 9%.
What’s more, 332 billionaires were minted in 2017, a rate of almost a person-per-day joining the three-comma club. Of those 332, 199 were self-made entrepreneurs, with 89 of them hailing from China, the report found. Sixty-one inherited their fortunes.
“People have become very wealthy with this [impact of innovation],” John Mathews, head of ultra-high net worth Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, said. “The reality of it is the impact and the way we live our lives with the wealth being created, not just with the billionaires themselves, but with everyone associated with it, has just accelerated at a pace I’m not sure we were even ready for.”
Breaking it down by source for the newest entrants, 40% are from the consumer and retail sector, followed by 17% from financial services and 11% in the technology sector.
Billionaires are richer than before too, with their average net-worth sitting at $4 billion. They’re also getting younger in many cases. The average age globally is 64, while in China, it’s 55.
Breaking the numbers down geographically, the U.S. continues to dominate as the home to the world’s wealthiest. The U.S. added 53 billionaires last year, a 4% increase, bringing the total to 585. The collective wealth of U.S. billionaires gained 12% climbing to $3.1 trillion.
While the U.S. holds the largest concentration of billionaire wealth, China is quickly catching up, and the APAC region could soon surpass the Americas.
China saw unprecedented growth among its wealthiest, minting two billionaires each week last year. Asia, as a whole, created three new billionaires per week.
“This is the Chinese phenomenon,” said Mathews. “There is such massive growth going on in Asia, particularly in China.”
To put the growth in context, China had only 16 billionaires in 2006. Today, that number is 373 and climbing. China, home to 1.4 billion people, added 55 new billionaires last year and their aggregate wealth grew 39% to $1.12 trillion.
UBS, the largest wealth management firm in the world, banks one out of every two billionaires.
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to laroche@oath.com.