World’s five richest men doubled wealth since 2020, Oxfam says

The world’s five richest people have more than doubled their collective wealth to $869 billion, from $405 billion, since 2020, as almost five billion people globally – 60 per cent of the world’s population – have grown poorer, according to charity Oxfam International.

If each of the planet’s five wealthiest men were to spend $1 million daily, they would take 476 years to exhaust their combined wealth, Oxfam said in its annual Inequality Inc report on Monday.

The world’s top five richest people are: Elon Musk with a net worth of $206 billion, Jeff Bezos ($179 billion), Bernard Arnault ($162 billion), Bill Gates ($149 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($135 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

At the current rate, it would take 230 years to end poverty – but the world could have its first trillionaire in 10 years’ time, Oxfam said.

The report was released during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

“As we enter 2024, the very real danger is that these extraordinary extremes are becoming the new normal,” Oxfam said.

“We are living through what appears to be the start of a decade of division: in just three years, we have experienced a global pandemic, war, a cost-of-living crisis and climate breakdown.

“Each crisis has widened the gulf – not so much between the rich and people living in poverty, but between an oligarchic few and the vast majority.”

The number of billionaires rose by 7 per cent globally last year to 2,544 from 2,376, while their collective wealth recovered by 9 per cent to $12 trillion from $11 trillion, according to a report by Swiss banking group UBS.

The world’s richest 1 per cent own 43 per cent of all global financial assets, according to the Oxfam report.

Globally, men own $105 trillion more wealth than women – the difference in wealth is equivalent to more than four times the size of the US economy, Oxfam said.

It would take 1,200 years for a female worker in the health and social sector to earn what a chief executive in the biggest Fortune 100 companies earns on average in one year, it added.