Swiss bank UBS said on Thursday that the wealth owned by the world’s billionaires jumped by about 17% over the past year, as significant gains among the wealthy in the United States offset declines in China.
The UBS Billionaires Aspirations Report for 2024 stated that the total number of billionaires rose to 2,682 from 2,544 a year ago, and the value of their wealth reached $14 trillion from $12 trillion, and in 2015 their total wealth reached $6.3 trillion.
According to the World Bank, the world population was more than 8 billion last year, and the gross domestic product was about 105.4 trillion dollars, which confirms the extent of the concentration of wealth in a small segment of humanity.
The UBS report showed that most of the year’s new billionaires are self-made, while the 2023 report revealed that the new billionaires acquired more wealth through inheritance than through entrepreneurship.
The report stated that “the wealth of technology billionaires grew at the fastest pace in 10 years,” rising three-fold to $2.4 trillion on the back of new technologies that include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, financial technology, 3D printing, and robotics.
In a survey that included 82 billionaires, conducted by UBS Bank between last June and September:
- 40% said they want to invest more in real estate and stocks from industrialized countries in the next 12 months.
- 40% said they want to increase their savings in safe havens such as gold and other precious metals.
- 31% said they want to increase their cash savings.
The report also showed an increasing pace of billionaires moving, with one in 15 moving to reside elsewhere since the Covid-19 pandemic in search of political stability, good health care, and successful schools.
Risks
The latest report, based on a survey of billionaires conducted between June and September and wealth data of the wealthy, showed that the risk of geopolitical conflict and inflation were among the main concerns billionaires faced.
At the country level:
- The number of billionaires in the United States jumped to 835 from 751, led by industry and technology moguls, as their total wealth rose to $5.8 trillion from $4.6 trillion.
- The number of billionaires in China decreased to 427 from 520, and their wealth to $1.4 trillion from $1.8 trillion. In 2021, there were 626 billionaires in China whose combined wealth amounted to more than $2.5 trillion, according to previous data from UBS.
Taxes on the wealthy
Last June, G20 leaders called for imposing a future global tax on the world’s billionaires, and allocating the resulting amounts to vital projects.
Oxfam had indicated in a report issued last June that the $42 trillion that the 1% of the world’s wealthy added to their wealth over the past decade is equivalent to more than 36 times the wealth accumulated by the poorest half of the world’s population. However, Billionaires pay taxes equivalent to less than 0.5% of their global wealth.
