Hurun Report released the Hurun Global Rich List 2017, a ranking of the US dollar billionaires currently found in the world, wealth calculations are a snapshot of 15 January 2017, this is the sixth year that Hurun Report has released a ranking of the dollar billionaires in the world, the so-called ‘Nine-Zero Club’.

Key Findings

1. 2257 billionaires in world, up 69 on last year; up 55% or 804 over last 5 years. Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report, said “Billionaires are concentrating wealth at a supercharged rate.”
2. Going up: 1,037 saw wealth increase + 343 new faces. Going down: 740 saw wealth decrease + 276 dropped off last year’s list.
3. Chinese billionaires pull away from USA, 609 to 552, up 41 and 17 respectively.
4. Germany overtakes India for third place, rising 27, whilst India down 11.
5. Bill Gates, 61, holds onto top spot with US$81BN, just managing to hold of Warren Buffet’s 15% charge to US$78BN.
6. Fastest riser. Jeff Bezos of Amazon up US$19BN to US$72BN, at one point in last year challenging Bill Gates for top spot.
7. Technology key source of wealth, real estate drops to fourth place, behind manufacturing and investments.
8. 23 new entrants to the Top 100, led by Chinese express delivery king Wang Wei, 46, of SF Express, up five-fold to 25th with US$27BN. Elon Musk breaks into Top 100 for first time.
9. ogistics and retail fastest growing sectors for billionaires this year. Rupert Hoogewerf said, “The new economy is driving an explosion in parcel deliveries, creating more new wealth than any other sector.”
10. Women make up 15% of the list. Of the 152 self-made female billionaires, Chinese led the way with a staggering 79.5%. The richest woman is Liliane Bettencourt, 94, of L’OREAL with US$37BN. The richest self-made woman in the world is Beijing real estate queen Chen Lihua with US$7.2BN. Rupert Hoogewerf said, “China is indisputably now the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur.”
11. Two third self-made. One-third inherited. Most Chinese on the list are self-made.
12. 9% first generation immigrant billionaires, led by Sergey Brin of Google, who was born in Russia and emigrated to the USA.
13. 652 billionaires of Chinese origin, or 29% of Hurun List. Chinese make up 20% of world population.
14. Political billionaires. Donald Trump leads a number of billionaires in politics. 115 Chinese billionaires are sitting in the Chinese Parliament as delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) or Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).  
15. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Donald Trump have biggest social media followers from USA. In China, Wang Sicong, son of China’s number one Wang Jianlin, and Jack Ma of Alibaba have biggest social media followers.
16. 78 forty or under, of which 46 self-made. Youngest is Hugh Grosvenor, 26, who inherited US$15BN from his father Gerald. The youngest self-made billionaires is Evan Spiegel, 26, of Snapchat, worth US$5BN.
17. 3% are fourth generation or more: 72 billionaires coming from 43 companies.
18. 19 billionaires died from last year’s list. Richest was Forrest Mars JR with US$28BN. Youngest was UK Landlord Gerald Grosvenor aged 63.
19. Asia pipped North America again in terms of total wealth created, US$2.98TN compared with US$2.78TN.
20. Chinese stock exchanges attracted double the number of billionaires than USA stock exchanges, 437 compared with 215.
21. Chinese star signs. Billionaires born in the year of the Snake pulled away from second-placed Horse. Monkeys had the best year, shooting up 3 places to third. Pigs and Roosters propped up the bottom. 

Top 10

8 of the Top 10 are from the US.  Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett led the charge, adding US$19bn, US$11bn and US$10bn respectively. The world’s Top 10 has no new faces this year.

Where they live

The ‘Big Two’ are Greater China and the USA with 609 and 552 billionaires respectively, amounting to half of the billionaires on the planet. It has been a good year for Germany, which surged past India into third place.  UAE and Indonesia broke into the Top 20 for the first time. Bangladesh contributed a billionaire for the first time, to take the countries that the billionaires reside in to 68 countries.

Beijing is the ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’ for the second year running, ahead of New York. Shenzhen surprised many adding 16 billionaires to propel it into fourth place, just behind HK. Seven of the Top 20 billionaire capitals are in Greater China. California is the USA state with the most billionaires, of which over half are from the Bay Area. Hoogewerf said, “Shenzhen and HK now have the highest concentration of wealth in the world, ahead even of California.”

Source of Wealth by Industry

It has been a great year for Logistics and Retail, up 15% and 13% respectively in terms of the number of billionaires, and a bad year for Manufacturing and Real Estate, down 11% and 10%.  Real estate dropped down from second to fourth place. Manufacturing and investments both rose one place.

New entrants to the Top 100

There were 23 new entrants to the Top 100, led by Chinese Express Delivery King Wang Wei of SF Express, whose February IPO saw his wealth shoot up five-fold to US$27bn, straight into 25 in the world.

Others of note include former China Number One Ding Lei, 46, of Netease, and Elon Musk, who broke into the Top 100 for the first time. Lakshmi Mittal, 66, won back most of his losses from last year, on the back of a recovery in the global steel market.

Youngest Self-Made Billionaires

There were 78 billionaires aged 40 or under, down 1 from last year. 46 are self-made with 32 inherited.USA and China led the way with 25 and 23, making up half the young billionaires. Facebook contributed the most billionaires under 40, with 4. 16% are women. 

Pinterest founders Ben Silbermann, 34, at US$1.3bn and Evan Sharp, 34, at US$1.1bn, both make the list for the first time.

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