In its annual assessment of global inequality, timed to coincide with the Davos Forum, Oxfam International said that last year, almost four new billionaires emerged in the world every week.
Oxfam, an international organization dedicated to fighting global poverty, reported this.
In 2024, there were 204 more billionaires in the world – their number grew from 2,565 to 2,769, or about four new billionaires a week. Their wealth grew three times faster than in 2023, increasing from $13 trillion to $15 trillion.
On average, each billionaire’s wealth grew by $2 million a day. And the wealth of the ten wealthiest billionaires grew by $100 million a day. They would still be billionaires if they suddenly lost 99% of their wealth.
A year ago, Oxfam predicted the world would have its first trillionaire within 10 years. But if the wealth of the richest people grows as fast as it does now, then in 10 years, there will be not one but five trillionaires in the world.
The richest people in the world have the best chance of becoming the first trillionaires. These are Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and his family.
Oxfam estimates that 36% of billionaires worldwide inherited their wealth, 18% inherited it through a monopoly in a particular field, and 6% inherited it through connections to the government. Moreover, all billionaires under the age of 30 inherited their wealth. The region where most of the inherited wealth is in Latin America.
Almost 3.6 billion people (44% of the world’s population) live on less than $6.85 per day, a number that has remained virtually unchanged since 1990.
Oxfam proposes several measures to counteract the growing concentration of wealth and reduce inequality.
First, an inheritance tax should be introduced for the richest people, and other taxes should be raised for them. Secondly, to ensure that the income of the richest 10% of the population does not exceed the income of the poorest 40%, according to Oxfam, governments and international organizations should monitor this. Thirdly, to pay reparations to countries that were colonies in the past, and the money should be paid by “the richest who benefited most from colonialism.”