Only 14 of the world’s 1,000 billionaires are self-made women, and only seven of them had no help from relatives, a new list has found.
By contrast, 665 men are self-made billionaires including the three richest people in the world, Carlos Slim Helú , Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Among the list are talk-show star Oprah Winfrey, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and former eBay head, Meg Whitman.
The richest on the list was Chinese real estate billionaire Wu Yajun, whose fortune is worth $US3.9 billion.
New York City‘s got fashionable Fifth Avenue, trendy Tribeca and an oasis in Central Park. To enjoy those perks, residents pay up.
The Big Apple topped a new list of America’s most expensive cities, with a measured cost of living surpassing that of Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.
Making $123,000 a year would buy you the same standard of living as someone who makes $50,000 in Houston, Texas, according to the New York Daily News.
The world’s new richest man, Mexican Carlos Slim, and a fresh crop of billionaires in Asia helped lead a comeback for the wealthiest few on the planet in 2010, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.
The publication’s annual rich list reflected a resurgence of wealth after the financial turmoil of 2009, with the top 10 wealthiest worth a combined 342 billion dollars, compared to 254 billion dollars in the previous year.
“The global economy is recovering. The financial markets came back, especially emerging markets,” said magazine editor-in-chief Steve Forbes.
“There’s a 50 percent increase in general global wealth compared to last year,” Forbes said.
Certainly the economy recovered for the super rich, who took a beating during last year’s stock and commodity market collapses, but saw across-the-board gains this year.
Forbes counted 1,011 billionaires from 55 countries, up from 793 last year, though still shy of the pre-crisis 1,125 listed in 2008.
The top 10 richest people in the world have a combined worth of 342 billion dollars in 2010, up from 254 billion a year ago.
Here are the 20 wealthiest, as announced Wednesday by Forbes magazine in its annual list of the world’s billionaires:
1. Carlos Slim Helu and family. Mexico. Telecoms. 53.5 billion dollars.
2. Bill Gates. US. Microsoft. 53 billion dollars.
3. Warren Buffett. US. Berkshire Hathaway. 47 billion dollars.
What is the most expensive car in the world? The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe was sold for $8,700,000 in 1987.
However, that car and many alike will not be included in this list because it is not available on the market today.
US financial magazine Forbes published February 1 its annual list of the world’s most expensive cars, proving that exclusivity really does equal value.
Castles in France. Islands in the Caribbean. With a collective $1.27 trillion at their disposal, the members of The Forbes 400 could buy almost anything.
How about a country? A quick glance at the CIA Fact Book suggests the individual fortunes of many billionaires are as big as some of the world’s economies.
Bill Gates, America’s richest man with a net worth of $50 billion, has a personal balance sheet larger than the gross domestic product of 140 countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia and Uruguay.
