Billionaires’ total wealth increased by $2 trillion in 2024, the equivalent of $5.7 billion a day, a report from Oxfam has revealed.

It found that billionaire wealth had risen at a rate three times faster in 2024 than it had in 2023, with an average of four new billionaires minted each week.

Despite the growth in billionaire wealth, Oxfam highlighted that the number of people living in poverty had “barely changed” since 1990, according to World Bank data.

In 2024, the number of billionaires increased from 2,565 to 2,769 and their combined wealth grew from $12 trillion to $15 trillion during the same period – the second largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since record began.

The wealth of the 10 richest men in the world rose by an average of $100 million per day, according to the report.

Oxfam estimated that 36 per cent of billionaire wealth was now inherited, while analysis by Forbes found that every billionaire under 30 had inherited their wealth.

The charity forecast there would be five trillionaires within the next decade.

The ‘Global North’ houses 69 per cent of global wealth, 77 per cent of billionaire wealth, and is home to 68 per cent of billionaires despite making up just 21 per cent of the population.

Oxfam called on governments to “act rapidly” to reduce inequality and end extreme wealth by committing to ensuring that the incomes of the top 10 per cent were no higher than the bottom 40 per cent.

It also urged governments to tax the richest end of extreme wealth, abolish tax havens, and the end the flow of wealth from south to north.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable,” commented Oxfam international executive director, Amitabh Behar.

“The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated —by three times— but so too has their power.

“The ultra-rich like to tell us that getting rich takes skill, grit and hard work. But the truth is most wealth is taken, not made. So many of the so-called ‘self-made’ are actually heirs to vast fortunes, handed down through generations of unearned privilege.

“Untaxed billions of dollars in inheritance is an affront to fairness, perpetuating a new aristocracy where wealth and power stays locked in the hands of a few.

“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."

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