Global Billionaire Population at Record, With $7.3 Trillion in Wealth

Those who held onto their wealth, however, enjoyed big increases in their fortunes — up 17% in the Middle East, and up 13% in Africa — thanks to more international diversification in their investment and business holdings.

Only the Pacific region experienced a drop in total billionaire wealth, down 2%, while population growth remained static. The decline in wealth owed in part to weaker prices of commodities such as coal, which was down 30% this year.

Key Themes

Cities matter to billionaires, with 34% of their numbers concentrated in 20 cities, according to the 2014 report. These folks move from city to city, not from country to country.

Cities are particularly important in emerging markets, so much so that 90% of billionaires in the Middle East and Africa are based in the most significant regional hubs.

People who inherited only part of their wealth and became billionaires through their own entrepreneurial endeavors made up the fastest growing segment of the billionaire population. The survey found that 63% of all billionaires’ primary companies were privately held.

This trend crossed gender lines, with the share of billionaire women who fully inherited their wealth decreasing slightly over the past year. In 2014, 286 female billionaires accounted for a 12.3% share of global billionaire wealth.

Billionaires increased their liquidity holdings this year to an average $600 million per individual. Wealth-X said this signaled that many were waiting for the optimal time to make further investments.

Interestingly, a “ceiling” exists for how rich a billionaire can get. The survey found that 95% of the world’s billionaires have a net worth between $1 billion and $10 billion.

This has to do with the fact that the average billionaire is 63 years old and that older billionaires tend to transition from wealth accumulation to wealth preservation.

Finally, expect the world’s billionaire population to expand. As in Latin America, wealth is passing to the next generation, and Wealth-X expects this trend to accelerate in the future as many first-generation wealth creators pass on their wealth.