204 new billionaires minted in 2024, nearly four every week: Oxfam

Oxfam International published “Takers Not Makers” report on January 20, 2025, as business elites gathered in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

Billionaire wealth surged by $2 trillion in 2024, three times faster than the year before. According to World Bank data, the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990.

In 2024, the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, up from 2,565 in 2023. Their combined wealth surged from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in just 12 months. This is the second-largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since records began. The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men grew on average by almost $100 million a day – even if they lost 99 per cent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires.

Last year, Oxfam predicted the emergence of the first trillionaire within a decade. However, with billionaire wealth accelerating faster, this projection has expanded dramatically – at current rates, the world is now on track to see at least five trillionaires within that timeframe.

This ever-growing concentration of wealth is enabled by a monopolistic concentration of power, with billionaires increasingly exerting influence over industries and public opinion.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated – by three times – but so too has their power,” said Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar. “We present this report as a stark wake-up call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few."

The report also shines a light on how, contrary to popular perception, billionaire wealth is largely unearned — 60 per cent of billionaire wealth now comes from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections. Unmerited wealth and colonialism —understood as not only a history of brutal wealth extraction but also a powerful force behind today’s extreme levels of inequality— stand as two major drivers of billionaire wealth accumulation.

Oxfam calculates that 36 per cent of billionaire wealth is now inherited. Research by Forbes found that every billionaire under 30 has inherited their wealth, while UBS Bank estimates that over 1,000 of today’s billionaires will pass on more than $5.2 trillion to their heirs over the next two to three decades.

Many of the super-rich, particularly in Europe, owe part of their wealth to historical colonialism and the exploitation of poorer countries. For example, the fortune of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has put his sprawling media ‘empire’ at the service of France's nationalist right, was built partly from colonial activities in Africa.

This dynamic of wealth extraction persists today: vast sums of money still flow from the Global South to countries in the Global North and their richest citizens, in what Oxfam’s report describes as modern-day colonialism. The richest 1 per cent in Global North countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and France extracted $30 million an hour from the Global South through the financial system in 2023.

Global North countries control 69 per cent of global wealth, and 77 per cent of billionaire wealth and are home to 68 per cent of billionaires, despite making up just 21 per cent of the global population. The average Belgian has about 180 times more voting power in the largest arm of the World Bank than the average Ethiopian.

Low- and middle-income countries spend on average nearly half of their national budgets on debt repayments, often to rich creditors in New York and London. This far outstrips their combined investment in education and healthcare. Between 1970 and 2023, Global South governments paid $3.3 trillion in interest to Northern creditors.

Research shows that wages in the Global South are 87 to 95 per cent lower than wages in the Global North for work of equal skill. Despite contributing 90 per cent of the labour that drives the global economy, workers in low- and middle-income countries receive only 21 per cent of global income.

Globally, women are more often found in the most vulnerable forms of informal employment, including domestic work, than their male counterparts. Migrant workers in rich countries earn, on average, about 13 per cent less than nationals, with the wage gap rising to 21 per cent for women migrants.

“Untaxed billions of dollars in inheritance is an affront to fairness, perpetuating a new aristocracy where wealth and power stay locked in the hands of a few,” said Behar. “Meanwhile, the money desperately needed in every country to invest in teachers, buy medicines and create good jobs is being siphoned off to the bank accounts of the super-rich. This is not just bad for the economy – it’s bad for humanity."

Oxfam is calling on governments to act rapidly to reduce inequality and end extreme wealth. To radically reduce inequality, governments need to commit to ensuring that, both globally and at a national level, the incomes of the top 10 per cent are no higher than the bottom 40 per cent. According to the World Bank, reducing inequality could end poverty three times faster. Governments must also tackle and end the racism, sexism and division that underpin ongoing economic exploitation.

Global tax policy should fall under a new United Nations tax convention, ensuring the richest people and corporations pay their fair share. Tax havens must be abolished. Oxfam’s analysis shows that half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. Inheritance needs to be taxed to dismantle the new aristocracy.

Additionally, the flow of wealth from South to North should be ended. Cancel debts and end the dominance of rich countries and corporations over financial markets and trade rules.

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