How much did your paycheck grow over the past year?
If you're one of the globe's 3,311 billionaires, it's probably a lot heftier.
According to the Billionaire Census 2022 from Wealth-X data, the world's billionaire population rose by 3.3%, and their total wealth surged by 17.8% to a record $11.8 trillion.
A mere 20 individuals are "super billionaires," each with a net worth of over $50 billion.
North America has 1,035 of these fat cats. The U.S. is the dominant billionaire country. In second place is China followed by Germany. India jumped four places in the number of billionaires to replacing Russia as the fourth-ranked billionaire country. Russia's billionaire numbers declined by 11%, even before the invasion of Ukraine and the resulting severe international sanctions.
Among cities, Kuwait City, San Francisco and Hong Kong have the most.
And the technology industry has the youngest, most self-made billionaires. However most - more than 20% - are in the banking and finance business.