Top 15 countries with the most billionaires

Fifteen places dominate as the “home” to the world’s billionaires and wealth, according to Wealth-X’s 2019 Billionaire Census report. 

The report analysed data from Wealth-X’s global database of more than one million records of the world’s richest people. Three-quarters of the world’s billionaires live in just 15 places, the data revealed.

Collectively, the 1,942 billionaires in these places are worth US$6.8 trillion — that accounts for 79 per cent of the total global billionaire wealth in 2018. 

When it comes to where the wealthiest people are based, the United States dominates with 27 per cent of the world’s billionaires.

The nation’s total number of billionaires rose from 2017 to 2018 by 4 percent to 705. Major European countries saw both falls and rises in the number of their billionaires, depending on economic factors. All the top Asia-Pacific countries – China, which includes Hong Kong, India, and Singapore – saw a decrease in billionaires and billionaire wealth because of a decline in equity markets, the report said.