The question “who is the richest man in the world and his networth” has a different answer depending on when and where you ask it. For the past several years, the name at the top has most often been Elon Musk, with the closest competition coming from people such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault.
The richest man in the world and his networth today
In recent years, the rankings from Forbes and Bloomberg have most often listed Elon Musk first, with a reported fortune in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Behind him there has been a shifting group of tech and luxury-goods billionaires, each with a reported fortune in the low-to-mid hundreds of billions, depending on the day.
I will not give a fixed dollar figure for the top spot, because it changes with the stock market. If you need one for a specific date, check the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires page or Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
How the title changes hands
The ranking at the top is decided by share prices, mostly. Some well-known swings:
- A big tech earnings report can lift a founder’s fortune by tens of billions in a day.
- A drop in a luxury-goods stock can move a French billionaire down several places.
- A funding round for a private company can add to a founder’s estimated net worth without any change in the stock market.
That is why the top ten list reshuffles often, and why articles claiming a permanent “king of the rich list” tend to age quickly.
What counts as wealth
Rankings include stocks, private business stakes, real estate, art, cash and other assets, minus debts. They typically exclude things that cannot be valued, such as the wealth of some royal families or leaders whose assets are not publicly documented. This is why the “richest in the world” is really the “richest that can be measured”.
Richest man versus richest person
The phrasing in the keyword says “man”, and for a fair picture it is worth noting that Forbes also publishes lists of the richest women. Among them, heirs to large companies, such as Alice Walton and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, have been listed with fortunes in the tens of billions to over one hundred billion dollars in recent years. Those numbers are again estimates.
How wealth at the top is made
A quick pattern from the top of the list:
1. Founders who still hold large stakes in public companies, such as in tech.
2. Families that own luxury or retail companies.
3. Investors who built holding companies, for example in finance.
Almost nobody on the list gets there from salary. The top of the list is dominated by ownership.
Why the number is not income
It is important not to confuse net worth with earnings. A billionaire might take a small salary and still see their net worth rise by billions in a year because their shares gained value. Likewise, they can “lose” billions on paper in a bad month without having lost any cash.
How to answer the question in a school paper
A good answer would look like this: “As of [date], Forbes listed [name] as the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of about [range].” Notice the date, the source and the word “estimated”. If you cannot add those three things, you are probably repeating a number that nobody has checked.
Quick answers
Is the richest man always an American?
Not always. French luxury magnate Bernard Arnault has held the number one spot on some lists, and other countries have produced billionaires who reached the top five in different years.
How often does the number one change?
In calm markets it can stay the same for months. In volatile periods it can change in days, especially when two people are within a few billion of each other.
Do trackers include everyone?
No. They include people whose assets can be documented. Some heads of state and royal families are believed to have large assets that are impossible to verify, so they are left out.
Is the ranking a reliable guide to who earns the most?
No. It measures what someone owns, not what they earn in a year, and the two can be very different.
*This article is general information, not financial advice. Rankings and figures change daily.*
More like this: browse our Net Worth section. For background, see the Wikipedia entry.
