The amount of money owned by the world’s richest people has increased so quickly we are now on track to see the first five trillionaires within the next 10 years, a report by Oxfam has predicted.
Meanwhile, 3.6 billion people – 44 percent of the entire global population – are living in poverty.
The report, titled Takers not Makers: The unjust poverty and unearned wealth from colonialism, shows that the amount of money accumulated by billionaires including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rose three times faster in 2024 than it did in 2023. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty has not changed since 1990 – 35 years ago.
The combined wealth of the world’s richest people rose from $13trillion (£10.5tn) to $15tn (£12.14tn) in 12 months, the Oxfam report said.
Although the report does not name specific people who could become the world’s first trillionaires, Mr Musk – currently the richest person in the world with a fortune valued at $427.5billion (£346bn) – and Mr Bezos – worth $247.7bn (£200bn) – are likely to be among them. Tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison currently ranks third richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $229.1bn (£185.4bn), followed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, worth $215.5bn (£174.2bn).
The report found that, while 44 percent of people around the globe are living in poverty, 45 percent of the world’s wealth is held by just one percent of the people on the planet. The report also claims that around 60 percent of wealth accumulated by the world’s richest comes from “inheritance, cronyism and corruption or monopoly power”.
“The idea that extreme wealth is a reward for extreme talent is pervasive and strongly reinforced in our media and popular culture,” said the report. “But this perception is not rooted in reality.
“This report makes the case that the extreme wealth of today’s billionaire class is largely unearned.”
Although the Oxfam report notes overall global rates of poverty have fallen, the actual number of people living in poverty – 3.6 billion – is exactly the same as it was in 1990. This is according to the World Bank’s poverty line, which defines those earning less than $6.85 (£5.54) per day as in poverty.
Oxfam set out a number of goals to reduce poverty, calling on those earning the most to do the most. Among the measures it proposes are higher taxes for the richest people and corporations and reparations for those affected by colonialism, funded by the super-rich.
