6 Surprising Facts About the Richest People in the World

http://www.alternet.org/6-surprising-facts-about-richest-people-world

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1. The wealthiest 32m people own more than the poorest 4.3bn put together

The idea of the world's wealthy 1% is still a powerful one – and graphics like the pyramid below demonstrate that stark contrast between the few and the many.

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2. 110 rich Russians

With just 110 individuals holding 35% of the country's riches, Russia has the highest level of wealth inequality in the world (with the exception of some small Caribbean nations that have resident billionaires). There's a stark contrast between that and the world average, where billionaires hold around 1-2% of wealth.



3. Wealth can be fleeting

Fortunes can go down as well as up. Using the Forbes rich list, Credit Suisse caught up with individuals that had been classified as billionaires as far back as 2001, to see how many were still among the super-rich by 2013.




4. Europeans can lose wealth easier than Africans

The blues on the right-hand side of this graph show people who have increased their wealth over thirty years; the lighter the blue, the bigger the jump in wealth. The oranges and yellows on the other side indicate people who have slid down the wealth scale in their respective countries.