--- title: A Lot of People Became Billionaires Last Year description: The number of billionaires in the world hit a record high last year, with more than 2,000 people holding the distinction authors: - name: Jennifer Calfas url: https://money.com/author/jennifer-calfas/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 339 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/jencalfas former_staff: true published: '2017-03-20T16:34:23.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T05:28:41.000Z' section: Business tags: - Bill Gates - Billionaires - forbes rankings - onetime - Warren Buffett word_count: 305 canonical: https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Bill Gates And Warren Buffett Speak At Columbia University](https://img.money.com/2017/03/gatesbuffett.jpg) *Bill Gates and Warren Buffett speak with journalist Charlie Rose at an event organized by Columbia Business School on January 27, 2017 in New York City.* The number of billionaires in the world hit a record high last year, with more than 2,000 people holding the distinction, Forbes revealed in [its annual list of the world’s billionaires](https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#20b6cfac251c) released on Monday. Forbes found 2,043 people around the world were billionaires, with 233 becoming billionaires just within the last year. That’s 13% more of them total in the world than last year, Forbes found. Additionally, those who gained billionaire status exceeded those who lost it by three to one. Microsoft founder [Bill Gates](https://money.com/bill-gates-wants-this-one-technological-advancement-in-his-lifetime/) maintained the title of richest person for the fourth year in a row, with his fortune rising to $86 billion. Investor [Warren Buffett](https://money.com/warren-buffett-march-madness-giveaway/) took the second-richest slot, and Amazon founder [Jeff Bezos](http://www.thedrive.com/news/8065/jeff-bezos-wants-to-bring-amazon-prime-like-delivery-to-the-moon) took third place, with net worths of to $75.6 billion and $72.8 billion, respectively. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rose to the fifth-richest spot, with his net worth growing to $56 billion last year. The most billionaires came from the United States, 565 billionaires combining for a net worth of $2.76 trillion. China and Germany follow the U.S., with the second and third most billionaires, respectively. Women had a [record-setting year](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2017/03/20/the-richest-women-in-the-world-2017-bettencourt-walton/#730ef9474bd3), as well. The number of female billionaires rose from 202 to 227. But women still make up just 11% of the world’s billionaires, and Forbes reports the majority of these women inherited their money. The world’s billionaires under the age of 40 took a hit this year, dropping from 66 to 56 billionaires. Irish entrepreneur [John Collison](https://time.com/4235698/startup-easy-business-atlas/), 26, became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, surpassing Snap Inc. cofounder Evan Spiegel, who is just two months older. Collison co-founded Stripe, a payments startup for companies, with his brother, Patrick Collison. The two brothers are both worth $1.1 billion. Forbes also found that [President Donald Trump](https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/)’s [fortune took a hit](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2017/03/20/trumps-net-worth-falls-200-million-since-election/#7cd5c5275ba4) since the 2016 election, dropping $200 million. [Read more at Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/&refURL=https://content.money.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4706663&action=edit&referrer=https://content.money.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4706663&action=edit#20b6cfac251c). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Entrepreneurship", "item": "https://money.com/entrepreneurship/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "A Lot of People Became Billionaires Last Year" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/", "name": "A Lot of People Became Billionaires Last Year", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-03-20T16:34:23.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T05:28:41.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "A Lot of People Became Billionaires Last Year", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/03/gatesbuffett.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 2182, "caption": "Bill Gates And Warren Buffett Speak At Columbia University" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jennifer Calfas", "url": "https://money.com/author/jennifer-calfas/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jennifer-calfas/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/jencalfas" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-03-20T16:34:23.000Z", "description": "The number of billionaires in the world hit a record high last year, with more than 2,000 people holding the distinction", "abstract": "The number of billionaires in the world hit a record high last year, with more than 2,000 people holding the distinction", "@id": "https://money.com/forbes-billionaires-world-list-2017/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T05:28:41.000Z", "wordCount": 305, "keywords": [ "Bill Gates", "Billionaires", "forbes rankings", "onetime", "Warren Buffett" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Entrepreneurship", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship" ] } ] } ] } ```