Women are still woefully underrepresented, accounting for just 369 of the planet’s 2,781 billionaires—or about 13%, the same as last year. The richest woman is once again Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the Fresh heiress to the L'Oréal fortune. She’s worth an estimated $99.5 billion. The richest self-made woman remains Swiss shipping tycoon Rafaela Aponte-Diamant ($33.1 billion).

Overall, 66% of the world’s billionaires are self-made—meaning they founded or cofounded their company or established their own fortune, rather than inheriting it–down from 69% in 2023. That includes nearly all 17 of the cryptocurrency billionaires on the 2024 list, who have come roaring out of the “crypto winter,” thanks to Bitcoin and other crypto assets trading at record highs.

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