Enjoy it while we can: America still has the most billionaires. But China, Russia, India and Brazil are moving up fast.
According to the Forbes list of World Billionaires 2011, Carlos Slim is once again the richest man in the world, trouncing Bill Gates. As it turns out, 2010 was a good year for billionaires, cranking out 214 new members of the ten-zeros club. Only 47 dropped off the list last year.
There are now 1,210 billionaires in the world, up from 1,011 last year.
But the big news is the changing geography of today’s billionaire population. The U.S. still dominates, with 413 billionaires, compared to Asia, which came in second with 332. The U.S. gained 23 new billionaires and lost 13, recording a net gain of 10.
Asia cranked out 98 new billionaires last year, and their combined fortunes jumped 37%.
The BRIC countries alone accounted for 108 new billionaires, giving them a total of 301. China had the most new billionaires, with 54 and a total of 115. (A newcomer named Li Li debuted with $5.7 billion).
Perhaps, as Forbes suggests, China’s old motto “factory to the world,” should be changed to “billionaire factory to the world.”
