espite the recent slide in stock markets around the globe, the two largest economies on the planet have more billionaires now than a year ago. While the number of people who landed on Forbes' new list of the World's Billionaires dropped from 2,153 to 2,095 in 2020, nearly half who made the ranks are citizens of either the United States or China.
The U.S. leads the pack with 614 billionaires-a record high and seven more than in 2019-though the combined wealth of these billionaires fell from $3.1 trillion last year to a recent $2.9 trillion. ( Forbes calculated net worths based on March 18 stock prices and exchange rates.) Amazon's Jeff Bezos remains the world's richest person, but his fortune is down from a year ago as a result of his divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos.
China comes in second with 389 billionaires, also a record for the Asian giant. Members of its three comma club are worth a combined $1.2 trillion, up 22% from $981 billion last year. In fact, China was the only nation among the 10 countries with the largest number of billionaires that saw a rise in aggregate billionaire wealth. The 389 billionaires exclude list members from former European colonies Hong Kong (66 billionaires) and Macao (one), which Forbes lists separately. In total, greater China boasts a total of 456 billionaires.
Outside of the U.S. and China, the story's less about growth and more about declines. Seven of the 10 countries with the most list members have fewer billionaires versus a year ago, including Germany, India, Brazil and France.
On a regional basis, the Asia-Pacific region has 778 billionaires-up from 768 last year-accounting for $2.5 trillion of wealth. Nearly half of the billionaires in this region draw their wealth from technology, manufacturing or real estate.
Canada plus Latin America together have 120 billionaires worth a collective $427 billion, down from 149 billionaires who were worth $550 billion a year ago. Forbes found 72 billionaires in the Middle East and Africa together worth $177 billion, down from 86 billionaires who had $222 billion in 2019.
Here are the 10 countries/territories with the most billionaires; net worths are as of March 18, 2020....