People are different and that's what makes life interesting, right? But when it comes to analyzing a specific group – it is the similarities that tell us something. And while there are 12 million millionaires in the world, there are only 1,645 billionaires, and we're fascinated with them here at Celebrity Net Worth. What do billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Oprah Winfrey have in common? Let's take a look at some of the more interesting data culled by a recent billionaire Census.
- There's one billionaire for roughly every three million people on earth. That's like being the 1 percent of the 1 percent.
- The continent with the most billionaires is Europe. There are 775 of them living there – nearly half of the world total.
- However, the U.S. is the country with the most billionaires. There are 571, located from New York to California.
- The average billionaire is worth $3 billion.
- The world's billionaires have a combined wealth of 7.3 trillion. That's up 12% from last year and greater than the GDP of Japan.
- The world's billionaires control 4% of the world's wealth. That means the rest of us control 96% of it.
- 60 percent of billionaires are self-made.
- 27 percent of billionaires became billionaires from re-investing inherited wealth.
- 13 percent of billionaires inherited their billions.
- Becoming a billionaire usually takes a lifetime of hard work. The average billionaire is 63 years old and 93 percent of billionaires are over 45.
- More than half of billionaires are married – 65 percent to be exact.
- The 1,645 billionaires went to hundreds of different colleges (and a few didn't go to college at all) but it is the Ivy League schools that can claim the most billionaire alums. The University of Pennsylvania has 25 billionaire alums, Harvard has 22, and Yale has 20.
- However, 35 percent of billionaires didn't finish undergrad.
- Nearly 20 percent of billionaires work on Wall Street (and the non-New York equivalents).
- On average, billionaires invest $160 million per billionaire in real estate. The average billionaire has four properties.
- Billionaires also invest in fun things. In fact, one in 30 owns a sports team or racehorses. Other popular luxury assets of billionaires include planes, art, cars, and yachts.
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
