Growth in billionaire numbers is world's 2nd fastest
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2016
The Middle East had the second-fastest growing population of billionaires last year, up 8% to 166, behind Asia Pacific, according to a report by Wealth-X, a specialist wealth research and consultancy firm.
The Middle East is now home to 6.7% of the world’s billionaires. The amount of wealth held by the region’s billionaires climbed by 9%, to US$450 billion last year.
In comparison, the number of billionaires in Asia grew by 15% to 645, and their total holdings increased by almost 20% to nearly $1.7 trillion.
Worldwide, the number of billionaires grew more slowly, by 6.4%. There are now 2,473 billionaires in the world, Wealth-X said, and their combined value grew by 5.4% to $7.7 trillion last year.