World Has 946 Billionaires

946 billionaires in the world? That's a whack of cash concentrated in such a small group of people; $3.5 trillion to be exact. Best of all? 83 of the world's billionaires are women! The list is growing too, with 178 newbies joining the world billionaire's club this year. People are becoming richer sooner (the average age of the super wealthy is 62 this year compared to 64 in 2005) and 60% have made their fortunes from scratch, and 67% of last year's billionaires are even richer today.

"Ingenuity, not industry, is the common characteristic; these folks made money in everything from media and real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol."

Here are the top 10 richest people in the world:
1. William Gates III, 51 (US) - $65 Billion
2. Warren Buffett, 76 (US) - $52 Billion
3. Carlos Slim Helu, 67 (Mexico) - $49 Billion
4. Ingvar Kamprad, 80 (Sweden) - $44 Billion [lives in Switzerland]
5. Lakshmi Mittal, 56 (India) - $32 Billion [lives in UK]

As a proud Canadian, it would only make sense to mention that David Thomson, 49, came in at spot 10 with $22 billion (inherited from family media company). Another person many people would assume to find in the top ten is Prince of Saudi Arabia, Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud; he came in at spot 13 with $20.3 Billion. Surprisingly, and probably only of interest to Krauts like me, brothers and founders of Germany's Aldi were $2.5 Billion apart; Karl Albrecht, 87, came in at spot 15 with $20 billion, while younger sibling Theo, 84, came in at $17.5 billion in spot 20.

It's great, but also a little bit unnerving that the world's youngest billionaire is only 23. Albert von Thurn und Taxis already has $2B in his young German mits. Tied at second for world's youngest billionaires are Fhad Hariri, 26 and Ayman Hariri, 28, each worth $1.6B.