US billionaires are collectively worth about $7.6 trillion, according to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness. That accounts for ~4.5% of all wealth held by Americans, while making up just .0003% of the population.
The US leads the pack, home to almost one-third of the world’s 3,028 people with a $1+ billion net worth, followed by China (450), India (205), Germany (171), and Russia (140), per Forbes.
The folks for whom a Ferrari impulse buy is roughly the financial equivalent of your last-minute decision to Uber to the airport tend to cluster in cities. Forbes found that the leading billionaire hubs are New York City (home to 123 billionaires), Moscow, Hong Kong, London, and Beijing.
Some routes are more likely than others to land you in the exclusive club that includes Bill Gates, Ronaldo, Selena Gomez, French fashion executives, and Russian oil tycoons:
Most can’t fully cash out: Billionaires typically aren’t able to build a castle out of hundred-dollar-bill stacks, since 66% of their net worth is tied up in stocks (often in a company they started), which they can’t sell easily, according to Altrata.—SK
