World’s top 80 billionaires

A study by Oxfam revealed that the world’s top 80 billionaires in 2014 has a collective wealth of $1.9 trillion. 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people).  That figure is now 80 – a dramatic fall from 388 people in 2010. The wealth of the richest 80 actually doubled in cast terms between 2009 and 2014.

The study shows that the very richest of the top 1% of the billionaires on the Forbes list have seen their wealth accumulate even faster over the past five years. In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $1.3 trillion. By 2014, the 80 people who top Forbes rich list, whose data Oxfam used, had a collective wealth of $1.9 trillion; an increase of $600 billion in just four years. And, it it’s not as if the very poor have the remaining 52% of global wealth. Almost all of it (46%) is owned by the “less wealthy” – the remaining richest 19% of the world’s population. The other bottom 80% shares just 5.5%, and had an average wealth of $3,851 per adult – that’s 1/700^th of the average wealth of the 1%  .

Ref: TOI dated 20.01.2015