Los más ricos del mundo

In the USA, Forbes magazine has published its annual list of the richest people in the world. Bill Gates of Microsoft is the richest man again for the eleventh successive year with a fortune of forty-four billion dollars.

This report from Mark Gregory:

There are a record 691 dollar billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. Between them they have a fortune of two point two trillion dollars. That figure is slightly more than the annual value of all goods and services produced in China and India, the two most populous countries.

The highest concentration of the ultra-rich is in New York, followed by Moscow and San Fransisco and then London and Los Angeles. But in total the very wealthy live in forty seven different countries, with Iceland, Kazakstan, Ukraine and Poland entering the list for the first time this year.

Laksmi Mittal, an Indian born steel tycoon, enjoyed the biggest increase in personal fortune. His net worth has quadrupled to thirteen billion dollars making him the world's third richest man. Ingvar Kamprad, founder of the Swedish furniture chain Ikea, also saw a big increase in wealth him taking to sixth place.

Developing countries make more of a showing than in past years - there are for example three Russians and four Indians in the top sixty richest people, though surprisingly perhaps none from China, excluding Hong Kong. Asian wealth is probably under-represented as its usually spread among families, whereas Forbes looks at individuals.

Relatively few women feature in the list - among them is JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, ranked 620th with a fortune of 519 million dollars. New entrants to the list include the founders of the internet search group Google Sergie Brin and Larry Page, each worth more than seven billion dollars after their company's recent stock market debut. The richest Italian is the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, ranked number 25 in the global wealth league.

successive
sucesivos

dollar billionaires
un billón equivale a mil millones, por lo que así se le llama a quien haya acumulado US$1.000 millones

trillion
un millón de millones (1.000.000.000.000)

most populous
más poblado

ultra-rich
super rico

net worth
valor neto, después de la deducción de impuestos; el valor de las propiedades e inversiones de una persona

quadrupled
cuadruplicó

developing countries
países en vías de desarrollo

under-represented
no está representado como debe

founders
fundadores