They say that you are what you eat, following that same logic are you should also be a direct reflection of the place where you live or who your friends are? If you live in Silicon Valley are you automatically assumed to be a creative genius? If your friends are frugal are you also automatically assumed to be careful with your money? It is very possible that you are a direct reflection of your surroundings and your friends because it is said that birds of a feather flock together. So what if you lived in a billion dollar country, would you be destined to become a billionaire someday?
MSN recently published an article about the countries around the world that have the most billionaires. Maybe you already live in a billion dollar country, maybe you hope to someday live in a billion dollar country or maybe you have no interest in living in a billion dollar country.
With high net worth’s and high incomes also come high living costs. You may want to live in a billion dollar country for the opportunities that it can bring, but can you honestly afford it?
Here is a list of MSN’s billion dollar countries:
– Canada has 40 billionaires. Some of the great Canadian billionaires include the president of eBay Mr. Jeffrey Skoll and the great telecom moguls the Rogers family. The billionaires in Canada have a combined net worth of $105 billion.
– Brazil has 49 billionaires. Most of the richest billionaires in Brazil made their money from the mining industry. The total net worth of the 49 Brazilian billionaires is $300 billion.
– Switzerland has 57 billionaires. This is probably no surprise considering that it is an international banking Mecca. The richest billionaire in Switzerland is Richard Louis-Dreyfus who is also a cousin of the famous actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus known to Seinfeld fans as Elaine.
– Hong Kong has 64 billionaires. The richest billionaire in Hong Kong is Li Ka-shing who has a net worth of over $22 billion.
– Russia has 97 billionaires. Some of Russia’s richest billionaires are owners of professional sports teams such as Mikhail Prokhorov who owns a part of the Brooklyn Nets (formerly the New Jersey Nets) and Roman Abramovich who owns the Chelsea Football Club.
– India has 109 billionaires. One of India’s billionaires Mr. Mukesh Ambani is the proud owner of the most expensive home in the world. Other Indian billionaires made their money from steel, energy and materials production.
– Germany has 137 billionaires. Germany has the highest net worth population in Europe, among the 15,000 residents with a high net worth 137 of them are billionaires. The combined fortune of German billionaires is $550 billion. The richest billionaire in Germany is a supermarket mogul.
– The United Kingdom has 140 billionaires. Many British billionaires made their billions in a creative field such as Paul McCartney in music and J.K. Rowling in literature. Let’s not forget Richard Branson who is the creative genius behind the Virgin empire.
– China has 147 billionaires. China has the world’s second-largest economy and therefore it is no surprise that they also have the world’s second-largest number of billionaires.
– The United States has 480 billionaires. There is a huge difference between the first and second place number of billionaires on this list. It is really no surprise that the U.S. is number one because after all it is the land of opportunity. The U.S. is home to many tech-savvy billionaires such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the founders of Google.
How would you like to make a billion dollars?
Photo by taxcredits
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
That is incredible! I can’t believe how many rich people there are. It would be interesting to know how and where all of these people came from and what they do to make their money.
Very interesting! I’m not surprised that the US is number one. It surprised me to see Germany with such a large number, however, the country does seem to be doing much better than the other European countries in the EU. Yes, it would be interesting to know where the billionaires came from and how they became billionaires. I wonder what trends we would see.
There are a lot of rich people and they seem to be making their billions within the resources of their country. Such as technology in the U.S. Thanks for reading.
Wow, very informative. Kristina I will agree with you that USA still the number one when it comes to number of billionaires, because of business culture and free enterprise law.
I was only shocked, why Japan and Singapore is not included in the list, considering there are a lot of wealthy people in Japan. Singapore is one of the richest countries based on capita income per GDP.
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