Taylor Swift among 141 new billionaires who joined list of world’s richest in 2024

There are more billionaires in the world right now than ever before, according to Forbes which released its World’s Billionaires List in 2024. It also features American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift who, for the first time, joined the list of the world’s richest people.

The Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s richest people shows that not only are there more billionaires than ever before but also that they are collectively worth a record-setting amount with their combined assets estimated at $14.2 trillion.

According to the list, there are a total of 2,781 billionaires in the world, with 141 new names joining this year, including Taylor Swift. The number in 2024 breaks the record set in 2021, by 26 people.

It is also worth noting that the cost of living crisis, the pandemic, wars, and instability across the world have had very little impact on the billionaires as their collective wealth, in the past decade or so, has risen 120 per cent.

Around two-thirds of the list’s members are worth more than a year ago, with only one-fourth of them becoming poorer. However, much of these gains, according to Forbes, came from the top 20 which added a combined total of $700 billion in wealth since last year.

The United States tops the list with a record 813 billionaires who are worth $5.7 trillion. This was followed by China (including Hong Kong), with 473 worth $1.7 trillion. India ranked third with a record 200 billionaires who have assets amounting to $954 billion.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, French luxury goods titan Bernard Arnault and his family topped the list with an estimated $233 billion.

He held the top spot for the second time in a row after earning $22 billion more than in 2023, thanks to another record year for his conglomerate LVMH.

Arnault was followed by Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and billionaire who is worth $195 billion. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos secured the third place on the list and is worth an estimated $194 billion. Swift, with an estimated worth of $1.1 billion, has marked yet another milestone, by becoming the first musician to join the 2024 ranks based solely on songwriting and performing.

Forbes also attributed this rise to the American pop star’s record-breaking first leg of the Eras Tour which is the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue. The 34-year-old is among the 265 newcomers to feature on Forbes’ list this year.  The richest newcomer on the list was Italy’s Andrea Pignataro, a former Salomon Brothers bond trader who launched financial software firm ION Group in 1999 and has grown it since through several high-profile acquisitions. He is worth an estimated $27.5 billion. (Agencies)

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