Oxfam says billionaires’ wealth soared in 2024, with 4 ‘minted’ every week

Billionaires’ wealth globally grew three times faster in 2024 than the year before, global advocacy group Oxfam International says, as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepare to attend an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

In its latest assessment of global inequality timed to the opening of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, Oxfam on Monday said the combined wealth of billionaires rose by $2 trillion to $15 trillion last year.

The report, titled Takers Not Makers, said there were 2,769 billionaires worldwide in 2024, an increase of 204 over the previous year. It noted that at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week during the year, and three-fifths of billionaire wealth came from inheritance, monopoly power or “crony connections”.

Oxfam predicted that at least five trillionaires will crop up over the next decade. A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear in that period.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable. The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated – by three times – but so too has their power,” Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar said in a statement.

The group warned that the United States’ President-elect Donald Trump’s policies “are set to fan the flames of inequality further”.

On average, the wealth of a single billionaire increased by $2m a day, Oxfam said. The richest 10 billionaires became richer by an average of $100m per day. Even if they were to lose 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still remain billionaires, it said.

In contrast, the report said the number of people living below the World Bank’s poverty line has “barely budged” since the 1990s and the number of people going hungry is rising.

The report is based on data from sources including estimates of the wealth of billionaires made by the US business magazine Forbes and data from the World Bank.