There are 2,397 billionaires in the world, which represents a 3.1% decline in billionaire population in 2016, the first annual decrease since the global financial crisis according to Billionaire Census 2017 by Wealth-X.
The report reveals that 283 individuals (more than 10% of total billionaires) lost their billionaire status in 2016, and 207 new billionaires emerged to join this exclusive wealth tier.
The top 5 countries in the world by the total number of billionaires are the United States, China, Germany, Russia, and the UK.
China has 249 billionaires, a decrease of 4.2%; the total wealth dropped by 0.7% to US$670 billion. And, about 1/3 of Chinese billionaires are under age 50.
Also read: China’s HNWI outbound tourism trends in 2016