[1] The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt and other factors.

[7] Each year, Forbes employs a team of over 50 reporters from a variety of countries to track the activity of the world's wealthiest individuals[8] and sometimes groups or families – who share wealth.

According to Forbes, they received three types of responses – some people try to inflate their wealth, others cooperate but leave out details, and some refuse to answer any questions.

[9] Business deals are then scrutinized and estimates of valuable assets – land, homes, vehicles, artwork, etc.

Since stock prices fluctuate rapidly, an individual's true wealth and ranking at the time of publication may vary from their situation when the list was compiled.

Two-thirds of the list members are wealthier compared to the previous year, including Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth increased by $112.6 billion.

The list, like in 2022, counted 15 under 30 billionaires with the richest of them being Red Bull heir Mark Mateschitz with a net worth of $34.7 billion.

[15] The U.S. continued to have the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 609, while China dropped to 324 (when not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan).

For the first time, Jeff Bezos was listed as the top billionaire due to Amazon's rising stock price that resulted in one person's biggest one-year gain in wealth ($35 billion) since Forbes started tracking in 1987.

[16] The U.S. had the most billionaires in the world, with 585, while China was catching up with 476 when including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; it had 372 when excluding those three places.

[21] Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway came in third for the second consecutive time,[22] while Mexican telecommunication mogul Carlos Slim slipped from last year's second position to fourth.

A record number of 290 people joined the list for the first time, of whom 25 percent hailed from China, which produced a world-leading 71 newcomers.

Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway placed third, while Amancio Ortega of Spain, slipped down a position from the previous year to number four.

America's Evan Spiegel, co-founder of photo messaging app Snapchat, became the youngest billionaire this year at age 24.

[1] Aliko Dangote of Nigeria became the first African to enter the top 25, with an estimated net worth of $25 billion.

Diesel founder Renzo Rosso was among the top newcomers, debuting with an estimate net worth of $3 billion.

[33] A global rise in asset prices led Forbes editor Randall Lane to declare "It [was] a very good year to be a billionaire".

However, it was not a good year to be Eike Batista, who fell from seventh to 100th, suffering the largest net loss of anyone on the list.

[35] Ricardo Salinas Pliego was the greatest gainer in terms of dollars, adding $9.2 billion to his fortune and moving up to number 37 overall.

[35] Making her debut on the list at age 41, Spanx founder Sara Blakely became the youngest self-made female billionaire ever.

[35] As a result, he failed to make the top 10 for the first time since 2004 and lost his title of richest Asian to Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing.

[citation needed] According to Forbes editor Kerry Dolan, "media and technology billionaires definitely benefited from a stronger stock market and a growing enthusiasm for all things social" since the 2010 list.

[38] However, Nigerian commodity mogul Aliko Dangote was the greatest gainer on a percentage basis as his fortune increased 557 percent to $13.5 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg was one of seven Facebook-related billionaires on the list, as he added $9.5 billion to his net worth to move up to 52nd.

[9] American Isaac Perlmutter was among the newcomers with an estimated fortune of $4 billion largely acquired in his sale of Marvel Entertainment to Disney.

Steve Forbes said the growing number of billionaires was a clear sign that the world's economy was recovering from the Great Recession.

[43] Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, four years after starting the company, joined the list at 23 to become the youngest self-made billionaire.

[44] Free cash used by consumers from home equity extraction, known as the real estate bubble created a total of nearly $5 trillion in 2005, contributing to economic growth worldwide.

As a result of the market crash caused by the Dot-com bubble, 83 billionaires dropped off the list from the previous year.

After the dot-com bubble started to collapse in 2000, his wealth dropped to $60 billion, although he remained at the top of the list.