Billionaires wealth hits new record high
In 2025, the combined wealth of the world's billionaires grew to $18.3 trillion, the highest figure in recorded history. This is according to a new report by the international organisation Oxfam, published on 19 January, on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to the study, billionaires' wealth grew by more than 16% last year, which is three times the average growth rate for the previous five years. In monetary terms, the increase amounted to $2.5 trillion — almost as much as the poorer half of the world's population, which is about 4.1 billion people, has in total.
Oxfam points out that this amount of additional wealth would be enough to completely eradicate extreme poverty in the world 26 times over. Overall, since 2020, the wealth of billionaires has grown by 81%, indicating a rapid deepening of economic inequality.
For the first time in history, the number of billionaires in the world has exceeded 3,000. Elon Musk remains the richest person on the planet, becoming the first billionaire whose fortune has exceeded half a trillion US dollars.
The report also notes that billionaires are approximately 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens. Oxfam International CEO Amitabh Behar warned that such a concentration of wealth creates a "dangerous and unsustainable political deficit" that threatens democratic institutions in many countries around the world.
Oxfam, world billionaires, global inequality, wealth, USA
