According to the annual report of Forbes, India ranks third in the ‘most billionaires’ list. India is home to 169 billionaires the report said. All of them together accounts for worth $675 billion. The reports have also revealed the fact that half of the billionaires around the globe have lost their wealth as compared to the same in the last year.

While India shelters billionaires, it also is home to the most amount of the poor people in the world.  India has the largest percentage of poor children in the world, at 22.8 crores, followed by Nigeria at 9.6 crores. Two-thirds of these people live in a household in which at least one person is deprived of nutrition. Extreme poverty in India accounts for 10.2 percent of the nation. The World Bank defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than USD 1.90 per person per day

US emerges as the topper in the Billionaires list

With 735 list members earning a combined $4.5 trillion, the United States continues to have the most billionaires. China stands strong at the second position with 562 billionaires with combined worth of $2 trillion.

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World wealth declining

As mentioned earlier, nearly half of the list is poorer than a year ago. The reason for the same is stated in the report. The world’s richest individuals had a bad year due to declining stocks, injured unicorns, and rising interest rates.

Globally, there were 2,640 ten-figure riches on the list, down from 2,668 the previous year. The combined wealth of the world’s millionaires is now $12.2 trillion, down from $12.7 trillion in March 2022 by $500 billion.

Europe markets maintained well

The top spot in the list goes to Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury products giant LVMH, making him the first French national to hold that position.

More than 1,000 billionaires are actually richer than they were in 2022 despite a down year for the markets, rising inflation, and the conflict in Eastern Europe; some by tens of billions of dollars.