The world has more billionaires than ever
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The total number of billionaires across the globe reached new heights in 2025, due partly to the soaring valuations of tech companies and rising stock markets, according to a new study by Swiss banking giant UBS. Some 2,900 billionaires now control $15.8 trillion, up from about 2,700 billionaires with a cumulative wealth of nearly $14 trillion a year earlier.
The number and wealth of billionaires as a whole were boosted by the second-highest number of new billionaires minted in a year—287—since UBS began tracking that figure in 2015. Only 2021, with its flood of government stimulus and low interest rates that boosted the prices of assets, saw a higher number of new billionaires created. “You’ve seen this acceleration of billionaire growth, and it’s actually coming from all areas," said John Mathews, UBS’s head of private-wealth management in the U.S., referring to the creation of new billionaires from both entrepreneurship and inheritance.
Also boosting wealth gains: a rising stock market over the 12 months ended April 4, 2025, the period covered by the study. The stock-market rout around President Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement damped returns for the period, though the market has largely continued churning upward since. The new, self-made billionaires created in 2025 were entrepreneurs in a range of fields.
Read on livemint.com