A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually major currencies such as the United States dollar, the euro or the pound sterling. Additionally, a centibillionaire has been deemed applicable to a billionaire worth one hundred billion dollars (100,000,000,000), a mark first achieved in 2017 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $112 billion in a report issued in early 2018. The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916, and still holds the title of history's wealthiest individual.
The Forbes 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by Forbes magazine of the wealthiest 400 American residents, ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is published annually around September. Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan describe the Forbes 400 as capturing "a period of extraordinary individual and entrepreneurial energy, a time unlike the extended postwar years, from 1945 to 1982, when American society emphasized the power of corporations." Bernstein and Swan also describe it as representing "a powerful argument – and sometimes a dream – about the social value of wealth in contemporary America."
The following are lists of people by net worth:
Black billionaires are individuals of Black African ancestry with a net worth of at least US$1 billion. According to Forbes 2018 ranking of the world's billionaires, Nigerian business magnate Aliko Dangote with a net worth of $13.8 billion is the world's richest black person. Others on the list are Nigeria's Mike Adenuga with $4.6 billion, American media mogul Oprah Winfrey with a net worth of $2.8 billion (2018), South African gold magnate Patrice Motsepe, with $2.9 billion, Nigeria's Folorunsho Alakija with $2.5 billion and Mo Ibrahim, a British billionaire of Sudanese Nubian ancestry, who has been on the Forbes Billionaire list since 2008 and in 2012 had a net worth of $1.1 billion.
The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine Forbes. The list was first published in March 1987. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists. This ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding and ranking against those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.
The World's Billionaires 2012 edition was 26th annual ranking of The World's Billionaires by Forbes magazine. The list estimated the net worth of the world's richest people, excluding royalty and dictators, as of February 14, 2012. It was released online on March 7, 2012.
The World's Billionaires 2011 edition was 25th annual ranking of The World's Billionaires by Forbes magazine. The list estimated the net worth of the world's richest people, excluding royalty and dictators, as of February 14, 2011. It was released online on March 8, 2011. Russian investor Lucio Mata, a newcomer for 2011, was the cover photo.
The World's Billionaires 2015 edition was the 29th annual ranking of The World's Billionaires by Forbes magazine. The list estimated the net worth of the world's richest people. The new list was released online on March 2, 2015. As of 2015, Bill Gates had been placed at the top of this list 16 times.
