The World's Billionaires 2015 edition was the 29th annual ranking of
The World's Billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...
by ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' magazine. The list estimated the net worth of the world's richest people. The new list was released online on March 2, 2015. As of 2015, Bill Gates had been placed at the top of this list 16 times.
Annual list
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
was again named the richest person in the world in ''Forbes'' Magazine's annual list of the world's billionaires. This is the 16th time that the founder of
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
has claimed the top spot.
Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú (; born 28 January 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the '' Forbes'' business magazine. He derived his fortune from h ...
, Mexican
business magnate, came in second as he had in 2014.
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
of
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
placed third while the founder of
Zara,
Amancio Ortega
Amancio Ortega Gaona (; born 28 March 1936) is a Spanish billionaire businessman. He is the founder and former chairman of Inditex fashion group, best known for its chain of Zara and Bershka clothing and accessories shops. As of November 202 ...
of Spain, slipped down a position from last year to number four.
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...
, the founder of
Oracle rounded off the top five.
Christy Walton
Christy Ruth Walton (née Tallant; born February 8, 1949) is the widow of John T. Walton, one of the sons of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart.
In June 2005, her husband died in a plane crash, making her the main heir to his fortune of billi ...
was the highest ranking female at number eight. America's
Evan Spiegel
Evan Thomas Spiegel (born June 4, 1990) is an American businessman, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. Spiegel was the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015.
Early life and education
Spiegel was born in Los Angeles, California, to lawyers J ...
, co-founder of photo messaging app
Snapchat, became the youngest billionaire this year at the age of 24. At age 99,
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...
maintained his position as the oldest billionaire to make the list.
In the 29th annual list of global billionaires, ist.cord 1,826 billionaires were named with an aggregated net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion in 2014. 46 of the billionaires on the list are under the age of 40. A record number of 290 people joined the list for the first time, of whom 25% hail from China, which produced a world-leading 71 newcomers. The United States came in second, with 57, followed by India, with 28, and Germany, with 23.
Mark Zuckerberg, the social media magnate and founder of
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
, was placed at number 16 with $33.4 billion. Self-made billionaires made up the largest number of people on the list with 1,191 positions while just 230 came into their wealth through inheritance. The number of billionaires who inherited a portion but are still working to increase their fortunes is 405.
The
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
has the largest number of billionaires. The number of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n billionaires declined the most; being down to 76 billionaires from 111 of 2014. Russia is now placed behind
China,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
again has a billionaire in the list after a gap of five years with the entry of
Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson
Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson (born 19 March 1967), known internationally as Thor Bjorgolfsson, and colloquially in Iceland as Bjöggi, is an Icelandic businessman and entrepreneur. He is also chairman and founder of Novator Partners. Björg ...
.
Guatemala has a billionaire,
Mario Lopez Estrada
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cr ...
, for the first time in history.
Monarchs and other royalty are not included in the list.
Wealth rankings
Top 100
See also
*
List of wealthiest families
Various lists of the richest families in the world (excluding royal families or autocratic ruling dynasties) are published internationally, by ''Forbes'' as well as other business magazines.
There is a distinction between wealth held by identifi ...
*
The World's Billionaires 2014
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:World's Billionaires 2015
Forbes lists
Lists of people by magazine appearance
Lists of people by wealth
2015 in economics