India has the third-largest number of billionaires in the world. Hurun Report’s Global Rich List 2018 that came out on Wednesday shows India as the country with the third-largest number of billionaires, behind only China and the US and ahead of countries like the United Kingdom, Germany and Russia.
India took the third spot from Germany after it made 31 new billionaires in the past year.
India has climbed to the 3rd position with 131 billionaires.
The number of Indian billionaires would have been 170 if the list was to consider Indian-origin billionaires as Indians.
Pharmaceuticals proved to be the biggest contributor for the country with 19 billionaires, followed by Automobile and Components with 14 billionaires, while the consumer products sector made 11 billionaires. Combined wealth of the Indian Billionaires this year has increased by 49% to make $454billion. The average age for an Indian billionaire is 64. Mumbai is the preferred hub for most Indian billionaires followed by New Delhi.
During the last year, 31 billionaires migrated outside India preferring locations like UAE, UK and USA.
According to the list, there are 2,694 billionaires in the world - 437 more than last year. A total of 1,508 people saw their wealth increase while the last year made 567 new billionaires across the world. 363 people also experienced a decline in their wealth.
The top spot has now been taken by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as he surpassed bill gates as the richest man despite Gates making $10bn throughout the year while giving away $5bn.
Expectedly, technology sector has been the key source of wealth while real estate has been on the second place, overtaking manufacturing that slips to the third place, followed by the investment sector that is now the fourth biggest source of wealth. Manufacturing and food and beverage sectors proved to be the fastest growing sectors for billionaires in the past year.
In this year’s list, women make up 15 percent of the total numbers which stays the same as last year while the number of self made women millionaires rose up from 152 last year to 184 this year, the richest lady being Alice Walton, heiress to the fortune of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. with a total wealth of $48 billion.
Out of the 2,694 billionaires, 69 percent are completely self-made billionaires, 22 percent are partly self made while only 9 percent got their wealth from inheritance. China produces the highest number of self made billionaires.
Interesting fact - For the first time since this list began, all top 10 richest are self-made billionaires.
This year, a total of 85 billionaires are forty years of age or under, the youngest being Norwegian Alexandra Andresen who is 21-years-old and has inherited her $1.3 bn wealth from her father. Youngest self-made billionaire has been Irishman John Collision, co-founder of Stripe who is 27-years-old and is worth $1.2 billion.
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