These 10 Countries Are Home to the Richest People in the World

A huge portion of the world’s wealth is concentrated in just a few countries. The United States is home to the most billionaires, with 735 members of the 2023 Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list living in America. These super-rich Americans are worth a collective $4.5 trillion. China — including Hong Kong and Macau — is home to the second-greatest number of billionaires, with 562 billionaires worth $2 trillion. That’s followed by India, with 169 billionaires worth $675 billion. However, the richest person in the world currently resides in France.

To find out the 10 countries that are home to the richest people, Madison Trust collected data from the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List to see the richest person in every country along with the source of their net worth. The 76 countries that had data available were then ranked by the net worth of their richest person.

Here’s a look at the top 10.

• Richest person in the country: Giovanni Ferrero
• Net worth: $35.3 billion
• Source of wealth: Nutella, chocolate
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 34

• Richest person in the country: Li Ka-Shing
• Net worth: $38.5 billion
• Source of wealth: Diversified
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 29

• Richest person in the country: Klaus-Michael Kuehne
• Net worth: $38.7 billion
• Source of wealth: Shipping
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 28

• Richest person in the country: David Thompson
• Net worth: $55.2 billion
• Source of wealth: Media
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 22

• Richest person in the country: Zhong Shanshan
• Net worth: $67.2 billion
• Source of wealth: Beverages, pharmaceuticals
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 15

• Richest person in the country: Amancio Ortega
• Net worth: $76.9 billion
• Source of wealth: Zara
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 13

• Richest person in the country: Mukesh Ambani
• Net worth: $86.5 billion
• Source of wealth: Diversified
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 8

• Richest person in the country: Carlos Slim Helu
• Net worth: $92.7 billion
• Source of wealth: Telecom
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 7

• Richest person in the country: Elon Musk
• Net worth: $186.1 billion
• Source of wealth: Tesla, SpeceX
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 2

• Richest person in the country: Bernard Arnault
• Net worth: $214.4 billion
• Source of wealth: LVMH
• Ranking on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List: 1

All data is sourced from Forbes via Madison Trust and is accurate as of March 7, 2023.