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The chart shows the scatter of the billionaires' net worth per country (y-axis), as a function of the country's GDP (x-axis) (both axis are shown in log scale). The billionaires' wealth is strongly correlated to the country's GDP (r = 0.94, R² = 0.89), but not the least with the GDP per capita (r = 0.07, R² = 0.01). In other words, while a wealthy economy can breed wealthy individuals — it is no surprise that the USA and China have the heaviest group of billionaires — the average financial condition of people, as measured by the GDP per capita, has no bearing on the relative weight of the billionaires' wealth. Low GDP per capita countries such as Brazil or Mexico, exceed in billionaires' wealth the per capita affluent Switzerland.
2017 Billionaire Net Worth |
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Nation |
Number of billionaires |
Net Worth |
GDP |
Population |
GDP per capita |
Billionaire net worth as percent of GDP |
| ($US current billion) | ($US current billion) | (million) | ($US current) | |||
| Algeria | 1 | 3.1 | 166.839 | 41.977 | 4,206 | 1.9% |
| Angola | 1 | 3.1 | 102.627 | 24.238 | 4,101 | 3.0% |
| Argentina | 7 | 12.4 | 583.169 | 42.840 | 13,432 | 2.1% |
| Australia | 33 | 91.0 | 1,339.141 | 24.526 | 56,311 | 6.8% |
| Austria | 8 | 31.2 | 376.950 | 8.621 | 43,775 | 8.3% |
| Belgium | 2 | 6.7 | 455.086 | 11.259 | 40,324 | 1.5% |
| Brazil | 43 | 172.1 | 1,774.725 | 206.760 | 8,539 | 9.7% |
| Canada | 39 | 133.8 | 1,550.537 | 36.575 | 43,249 | 8.6% |
| Chile | 12 | 41.4 | 240.796 | 18.220 | 13,416 | 17.2% |
| China | 319 | 808.6 | 11,007.721 | 1,415.770 | 8,028 | 7.3% |
| Colombia | 3 | 17.1 | 292.080 | 50.700 | 6,056 | 5.9% |
| Cyprus | 6 | 16.4 | 19.560 | 1.187 | 23,243 | 83.8% |
| Czech Republic | 6 | 23.5 | 185.156 | 10.844 | 17,548 | 12.7% |
| Denmark | 6 | 38.6 | 295.091 | 5.706 | 51,989 | 13.1% |
| Egypt | 7 | 18.1 | 330.779 | 87.298 | 3,615 | 5.5% |
| Finland | 7 | 12.9 | 231.950 | 5.494 | 42,311 | 5.6% |
| France | 38 | 245.1 | 2,418.836 | 65.641 | 36,206 | 10.1% |
| Georgia | 1 | 4.5 | 13.965 | 4.266 | 3,796 | 32.2% |
| Germany | 114 | 467.8 | 3,363.447 | 82.331 | 41,313 | 13.9% |
| Greece | 3 | 6.5 | 194.851 | 11.111 | 18,002 | 3.3% |
| Guernsey | 1 | 1.9 | 2.742 | 0.066 | 41,359 | 69.3% |
| Hong Kong | 67 | 271.1 | 309.235 | 7.414 | 42,328 | 87.7% |
| Iceland | 1 | 1.8 | 16.598 | 0.344 | 50,173 | 10.8% |
| India | 101 | 325.5 | 2,095.398 | 1,311.476 | 1,598 | 15.5% |
| Indonesia | 20 | 53.1 | 861.934 | 261.341 | 3,346 | 6.2% |
| Ireland | 8 | 34.2 | 283.703 | 4.824 | 61,134 | 12.1% |
| Israel | 18 | 54.1 | 299.416 | 8.144 | 35,728 | 18.1% |
| Italy | 42 | 151.9 | 1,821.497 | 61.272 | 29,958 | 8.3% |
| Japan | 33 | 114.5 | 4,383.076 | 126.342 | 34,524 | 2.6% |
| Kazakhstan | 5 | 10.5 | 184.388 | 17.086 | 10,510 | 5.7% |
| Kuwait | 4 | 5.4 | 114.041 | 3.769 | 29,301 | 4.7% |
| Lebanon | 4 | 9.0 | 47.085 | 5.041 | 8,048 | 19.1% |
| Liechtenstein | 1 | 2.7 | 5.113 | 0.038 | 134,776 | 52.8% |
| Macau | 1 | 1.0 | 46.178 | 0.602 | 78,586 | 2.2% |
| Malaysia | 12 | 45.7 | 296.283 | 31.552 | 9,768 | 15.4% |
| Mexico | 15 | 116.7 | 1,143.793 | 128.000 | 9,005 | 10.2% |
| Monaco | 4 | 7.1 | 6.063 | 0.039 | 198,260 | 117.1% |
| Morocco | 3 | 4.5 | 100.593 | 34.795 | 2,878 | 4.5% |
| Nepal | 1 | 1.3 | 21.195 | 29.071 | 743 | 6.1% |
| Netherlands | 10 | 31.6 | 750.284 | 16.924 | 44,300 | 4.2% |
| New Zealand | 2 | 11.4 | 173.754 | 4.685 | 37,808 | 6.6% |
| Nigeria | 3 | 19.6 | 481.066 | 193.842 | 2,640 | 4.1% |
| Norway | 14 | 32.4 | 386.578 | 5.250 | 74,400 | 8.4% |
| Oman | 3 | 6.7 | 69.831 | 4.403 | 15,551 | 9.6% |
| Peru | 5 | 8.4 | 189.111 | 31.937 | 6,027 | 4.4% |
| Philippines | 14 | 45.8 | 292.451 | 105.218 | 2,904 | 15.7% |
| Poland | 4 | 9.9 | 477.066 | 38.212 | 12,555 | 2.1% |
| Portugal | 4 | 10.7 | 198.923 | 10.603 | 19,222 | 5.4% |
| Qatar | 2 | 3.7 | 164.641 | 2.461 | 73,653 | 2.2% |
| Romania | 1 | 1.1 | 177.954 | 21.449 | 8,973 | 0.6% |
| Russia | 96 | 386.3 | 1,331.208 | 141.348 | 9,093 | 29.0% |
| Saudi Arabia | 10 | 42.1 | 646.002 | 30.923 | 20,482 | 6.5% |
| Singapore | 21 | 59.4 | 292.739 | 5.811 | 52,889 | 20.3% |
| Slovakia | 1 | 1.1 | 87.264 | 5.464 | 16,088 | 1.3% |
| South Africa | 8 | 26.6 | 314.572 | 54.170 | 5,724 | 8.5% |
| South Korea | 38 | 92.7 | 1,377.873 | 50.188 | 27,222 | 6.7% |
| Spain | 25 | 124.7 | 1,199.057 | 47.462 | 25,832 | 10.4% |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | 2 | 4.9 | 0.876 | 0.057 | 15,772 | 559.1% |
| Swaziland | 1 | 3.9 | 4.118 | 1.320 | 3,200 | 94.7% |
| Sweden | 31 | 117.5 | 495.624 | 9.826 | 50,580 | 23.7% |
| Switzerland | 36 | 107.4 | 670.790 | 8.401 | 80,945 | 16.0% |
| Taiwan | 31 | 75.2 | 519.100 | 23.465 | 22,123 | 14.5% |
| Tanzania | 1 | 1.4 | 45.628 | 55.439 | 879 | 3.1% |
| Thailand | 20 | 63.2 | 395.168 | 67.652 | 5,815 | 16.0% |
| Turkey | 29 | 48.5 | 717.880 | 78.228 | 9,126 | 6.8% |
| Ukraine | 6 | 10.6 | 90.615 | 44.062 | 2,115 | 11.7% |
| United Arab Emirates | 5 | 27.3 | 370.296 | 9.961 | 40,439 | 7.4% |
| United Kingdom | 54 | 162.5 | 2,858.003 | 64.555 | 43,876 | 5.7% |
| United States | 565 | 2,756.8 | 18,036.648 | 330.263 | 56,116 | 15.3% |
| Venezuela | 2 | 5.1 | 333.700 | 32.160 | 10,795 | 1.5% |
| Vietnam | 2 | 3.6 | 193.599 | 94.962 | 2,111 | 1.9% |
| Total | 2,043 | 7,668 | ||||
| r = 0.94 (Coefficient of correlation Net Worth-GDP). R² = 0.89 (Coefficient of determination Net Worth-GDP). r = 0.07 (Coefficient of correlation Net Worth-GDP per capita). R² = 0.01 (Coefficient of determination Net Worth-GDP per capita). | ||||||
Sources: see Forbes List of Billionaires, International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, and United Nations Population Division.
