

There are 154 billionaire women in the US. Here’s how they amassed fortunes.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Taylor Swift. The president of In-N-Out Burger.
The great-granddaughters of agriculture entrepreneur William Wallace Cargill. These are some of America’s 154 female billionaires. Though they are far fewer in number than the country’s 981 male billionaires, these women have roughly the same size median net worth as the men do at just over $2 billion, according to data from Altrata, a wealth-intelligence firm.
There has been a striking jump in the number of women who are self-made, meaning they got at least some of their wealth from a significant enterprise they launched on their own. Far more women—about 60%—were at least partially self-made in 2024, compared with five years earlier, when only about 40% fell into that category. The rest owe their wealth to inheritance.
Nearly all male billionaires are at least partially self-made. The richest Americans control a historically large share of wealth today. The number of billionaires in the U.S.—male and female—keeps growing, and many of them are getting wealthier.
Altrata evaluates public and private data to determine wealth, and evaluates the wives and daughters of living male billionaires individually. These wealth figures are based on estimates of assets that they hold in their own names—whether or not that was derived from family wealth or business. Altrata looked at where an individual’s primary business is located.
Read on livemint.com