If Bill Gates pops into your mind when you imagine wealth, you’re spot on. It turns out that Gates is the prototype of the rich: a self-made male entrepreneur. It’s even the exact age of the average global billionaire—67, according to Altrata’s 2023 billionaire census. a report (This is also coincidentally the age of millionaire icons like Kris Jenner, Bill Nye, and Whoopi Goldberg.) The report reviewed the Wealth-X census database, using a prosperity rating model to measure assets while looking at the finances, careers, education, and more of high-net-worth individuals.
It found that billionaires under 50 account for only 10% of the group, while billionaires over 70 account for 40%. In general, women are underrepresented in the billionaires club, making up less than a fifth of the group, although they are slightly more represented in the groups of younger individuals than the super-rich. Like Gates, who was once the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, the majority of billionaires are self-made; The 50-70 age group makes up 64% of this group. But unlike Gates, who made billions in technology, most billionaires (especially those between the ages of 50 and 70) made their fortunes in banking and finance.
That the most common billionaire is a self-made man in his late 60s with a financial background makes sense: Older adults have more time to build wealth, and baby boomers (men in particular) not only had a longer, easier way to get there. their fortunes.
“While the vast majority of self-made billionaires have launched their first venture at a relatively young age, it is rare for an individual to enter this exclusive wealth category before the age of 40,” the report’s authors write, adding that it has not been a significant distribution of wealth in the past five years, And if anything, the average lifespan of billionaires has increased quite a bit over this time.
Unless you inherited wealth (which was twice as likely for billionaires under 50 than for their older peers), they wrote, it takes “a long time” to build up enough fortunes to reach billionaire status. After all, billionaires make up less than 1% of the super-rich population but own 34% of that demographic’s wealth, according to Ultrata.
The inequality that drives billionaire status has led to some pushback on the part of the ultra-high-net-worth individuals themselves; Take, for example, the National Millionaires, a group of wealthy people including Abigail Disney, who advocate taxation of the wealthy. It has become a particularly hot topic in the United States, home to the world’s largest population of billionaires, Ultrata found, and where the number of millionaires continues to increase while others find it difficult to stay afloat during High inflation.
Building wealth has also been a smoother ride for baby boomers, who have inherited a sweeter bargain than the younger generations that came after them. Millennials and Generation Z have had a more difficult time building wealth thanks to student debt, stagnant wages, and Badly timed recessions. It has made achieving the American Dream even more difficult, especially in a challenging housing market where many believe their dreams of one day buying their home to be so. impossible. While boomers have had their share of inflation and recession, so has the economy More like a game set on easy mode For the generation that has benefited from less expensive education plus inflated interest rates and inflated home prices that make them build assets more easily.
While millennials finally saw some wealth gains during the pandemic, boomers are still worth eight times their worth — apparently another victory for billionaires like Gates.