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Forbes World's Richest People

Somehow, after browsing through Forbes' list of the world's billionaires, a paltry million just doesn't seem like much anymore. To really impress your friends, you've got to make at least a thousand millions.

In our technology-mad age, there are plenty of ways to make money. Bill Gates tops 'em all with his software fortune, but the rest of the world isn't doing too badly with real estate, beer, casinos, media, tires, salmon, sensors and Pachinko machines.

Where is the greatest concentration of the world's wealth? The U.S. is still king with 135 billionaires in our database, but the East is rising—there are 120 Asian billionaires. Europe is holding steady with 106 billionaires thanks to pharmaceuticals, retailing and financial services, but Latin America (40 billionaires) has a long way to go.

click on a column header to view the full list sorted by that category:

name worth ($bil) country
Gates, William III 18.5 United States
Buffet, Warren 15 United States
Paul Sacher,Oeri and Hoffman, Family 13.1 Switzerland
Lee Shau Kee 12.7 Hong Kong
Tsai Wan-lin, Family 12.2 Taiwan
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Special thanks to the hard-working reporters and editors who pounded the pavement to make a database like this possible. Forbes 1996 Billionaire Team: Graham Button, editor; Hiroko Asami, Riva Atlas, Natasha Bacigalupo, Justin Doebele, Kerry A. Dolan, David S. Fondiller, Kambiz Foroohar, Carleen Hawn, Stephen S. Johnson, Sumi Kawakami, Philippe Mao, Kazumi Miyazawa, Taro Ohata, Juliette Rossant, Cristina von Zeppelin, Esther Wachs Book, Caroline Waxler, Neil Weinberg and Soo Young Yoon.



 
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