The 500 wealthiest people in the world have lost a combined $1.4 trillion U.S. so far this year as stocks have entered a bear market.
The latest data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that the world’s richest individuals lost $206 billion U.S. on June 13 alone as stock markets around the world sold off heavily.
The loss of wealth represents a big reversal from last year, when soaring stock prices boosted the world’s population of high-net-worth individuals by nearly 10%.
The U.S., Japan, China, and Germany remain the top countries where most of the world’s wealthy live. Those four countries account for 64% of high-net-worth individuals globally.
People with investable assets of $30 million U.S. or more saw their wealth grow 9.6% in 2021 compared with a year earlier, before this year’s market downturn. Wealth created from high valuations for technology companies and start-ups also gave rise to more young and rich individuals, including in the cryptocurrency sector.
Wealth created through digital coins and tokens is also under threat now as the entire cryptocurrency market swoons.
