The Forbes list saw a record 493 newcomers joining the list, which means that a new billionaire was added every 17 hours last year.
Beijing has officially overtaken New York City to become the city with the most number of billionaires in the world after they added 33 new billionaires to their list in 2020, according to the Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List 2021. This brings the total to 100.
New York City, which held the prestigious position for seven straight years, follows closely with 99 billionaires in their city.
That said, the combined net worth of New York’s City’s billionaires remained at US$80 billion, which is more than that of their counterparts in Beijing.
Beijing’s richest resident, Zhang Yiming, who is also the founder of TikTok, saw his net worth increase to US$35.6 billion while New York’s richest person, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saw his wealth soar to US$59 billion.
Beijing’s rise is likely attributed to the fact that its technology sector has significantly grown during the pandemic, as online shopping and entertainment became a bigger deal.
In fact, half of China’s new billionaires made their money from technology or manufacturing businesses.
The latest Forbes list made waves primarily because they saw a record 493 newcomers joining the list. This comes up to a new billionaire every 17 hours, according to Forbes. This is despite the fact that much of the world suffered financial losses during the pandemic.
In fact, American billionaires saw their wealth rise 44 per cent in 2020 despite the fact that 80 million Americans lost their jobs and eight million people fell below the poverty line at the same time.
Currently, there are 2,755 billionaires around the world and their collective net worth comes up to about US$13 trillion.
