Female Billionaires: Growing But Still Outnumbered

By Tim Dhoul Updated Aug 12, 2016

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Introduction
Wealth report suggests changing demographic
What do billionaires fear?
Problems of succession planning highlighted by wealth report

Female billionaires highlighted in wealth report

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In growth terms, women, and particularly women in Asia, are outpacing men in the super global wealth stakes. The number of female billionaires in the world has multiplied at a faster rate than their male equivalents over the past two decades, according to a wealth report from UBS and PwC. Female billionaires, however, have had to start from a far lower base.

Wealth report suggests changing demographic

In 10 years, the number of female billionaires in US has jumped from 37 to 63. In Europe, the number now stands at 57, having risen from 21. But, in growth terms, it is Asia that stands out. A decade ago, there were reportedly just 3 female billionaires in Asia. Today, however, there are 25 and they tend to be younger than those found elsewhere in the world, indicating less of a reliance on multi-generational wealth – indeed, almost all of the study’s female billionaires in Asia are defined as being active wealth creators, and more than half are described as self-made billionaires.

“The rise of female and Asian billionaires over the last two decades is creating an entirely new billionaire demographic,” said UBS’s Josef Stadler in a press release.

A changing demographic perhaps, but certainly not a changed one as of yet; as much as the number of female billionaires has risen since 1995, they still account for just 11% of the total. This turns out only to represent a rise of two percentage points on the 9% proportion found in 1995. In all, the wealth report counts 1,347 billionaires in its analysis, representing a rise of around 366% between the years 1995 and 2014.

This figure is some way short of the 2,325 billionaires reported by UBS’s 2014 Billionaire Census, produced in association with Wealth-X. However, the methodology used here is rather different and restricts itself to 14 countries, listed as the biggest markets for the world’s richest individuals and which the report says account for 75% of the world’s billionaire wealth. While these countries include the US, UK, China, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India they do not stretch to a single Latin American or Middle Eastern nation.

What do billionaires fear?

When it comes to retaining their status, the wealth report says that billionaires’ biggest concerns are not economic crises, but rather “anti-wealth sentiment in politics, growing taxes and increasingly stringent global regulations”.

However, the report itself flags up another area to which billionaires may need to pay greater consideration – succession planning. For, it seems that billionaire status is far from being simple to retain – fewer than half of the 289 billionaires found in 1995 still make the cut 19 years later.

Problems of succession planning highlighted by wealth report

“Our findings reveal that it is in fact the second generation that all too often undermines the value of the business the first generation created,” said PwC’s global wealth leader in the US, Michael Spellacy, arguing that this goes against the conventional thinking that the third generation is most often responsible for destroying a family’s legacy of wealth.

This point is all the more pertinent, given that two-thirds of the wealth report’s billionaires are over 60 and therefore of an age in which decisions over how to pass on their wealth begin to become pertinent.

Those billionaires, and their families, that have survived during this 19-year timeframe have seen their wealth rise faster than global GDP and equity markets. Two-thirds of this number are said to have stayed on the list via their exploits in the areas of either technology, financial services or consumer products & retail. Those who have fallen by the wayside are most likely to have been engaged in areas such as real estate and healthcare.

The new release from UBS and PwC is an extension of the summer’s 2015 Billionaires Report.

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Tim Dhoul

Tim is a writer with a background in consumer journalism and charity communications. He trained as a journalist in the UK and holds degrees in history (BA) and Latin American studies (MA).