World’s Billionaire Population Surges to New Record High: UBS

A mega yacht, built by Dutch yacht builder Van Lent for former Starbucks U.S. CEO Howard Schultz, is piloted past a bridge in the Woubrugge village of the Netherlands on May 28, 2025. Josh Walet/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

The ultra-rich grew even wealthier this year, and the world has more billionaires than ever, according to Swiss bank UBS.

Global billionaire wealth hit a record $15.8 trillion in 2025, up 13 percent from last year, UBS said in its 11th Billionaire Ambitions study, published on Dec. 4. This represented the second-largest annual increase after 2021, “lifted by existing tech billionaires’ appreciating wealth and the number of new billionaires across a range of sectors.”