The world`s billionaires increased their wealth by 16% in 2025.

ArmInfo. The total wealth of the world's dollar billionaires increased by 16% in 2025, three times faster than the average annual growth rate over the past five years, according to Oxfam. The report is traditionally published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Since 2020, their wealth has grown by 81%, reaching $18.3 trillion.

The increase in billionaire wealth in 2025, expressed in monetary terms, is $2.5 trillion. The poorest half of humanity, comprising 4.1 billion people, holds approximately the same amount of assets.

This amount would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide 26 times over. According to UN methodology, extreme poverty is defined as an income of less than $3 per day per person based on 2021 purchasing power parity. According to the World Bank, approximately 10% of the global population falls into this category.

The number of dollar billionaires exceeded 3,000 for the first time last year, and the world's richest person, Elon Musk, became the first person whose fortune reached $500 billion.

Oxfam notes that a billionaire is 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than an ordinary person. Furthermore, billionaires own more than half of the world's largest media companies.

"Economic poverty breeds hunger, and political poverty breeds anger," said Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Oxfam called on governments to develop realistic and detailed plans to combat inequality and to increase taxation of the super-rich to limit their power. The organization also calls for a stricter separation of power and wealth, including through measures to counter lobbying and strengthen media independence. (INTERFAX)