Methodology: How We Crunch The Numbers
More than 50 reporters in 16 countries worked on compiling our 25th anniversary World’s Billionaires rankings. Throughout the year our reporters meet with the list candidates and their handlers and interview employees, rivals, attorneys and securities analysts. We keep track of their moves: the deals they negotiate, the land they’re selling, the paintings they’re buying, the causes they give to. To estimate billionaires’ net worths we value individuals’ assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, yachts, art and cash–and account for debt.Not that we pretend to know what is listed on everyone’s private balance sheet, though some folks do provide that information. We do attempt to vet these numbers with all billionaires. Some cooperate, others don’t.
We have not included fortunes dispersed across large families (as in those of the Du Ponts) when individual net worths are below our minimum of $1 billion per name. But we do include wealth belonging to a member’s immediate relatives if the wealth can ultimately be traced to one living individual; in that case “& family” indicates that the number shown includes money belonging to more than one person.
Our estimates of public fortunes are a snapshot of wealth on Feb. 14, 2012, when we locked in stock prices and exchange rates from around the globe. Some on our list will become richer or poorer within weeks–even days–of publication. Privately held companies are valued by coupling estimates of revenues or profits with prevailing price-to-revenues or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies.
|
RANK
|
NAME
|
NET WORTH
|
AGE
|
SOURCE
|
|
|
1
|
Carlos Slim Helu & family
|
$69 B
|
73
|
Telecom
|
Mexico
|
|
2
|
Bill Gates
 |
$61 B
|
57
|
Microsoft
|
United States
|
|
3
|
Warren Buffett
 |
$44 B
|
82
|
Berkshire Hathaway
|
United States
|
|
4
|
Bernard Arnault
 |
$41 B
|
63
|
LVMH
|
France
|
|
5
|
Amancio Ortega
 |
$37.5 B
|
76
|
Zara
|
Spain
|
|
6
|
Larry Ellison
|
$36 B
|
68
|
Oracle
|
United States
|
|
7
|
Eike Batista
|
$30 B
|
56
|
mining, oil
|
Brazil
|
|
8
|
Stefan Persson
|
$26 B
|
65
|
H&M
|
Sweden
|
|
9
|
Li Ka-shing
|
$25.5 B
|
84
|
diversified
|
Hong Kong
|
|
10
|
Karl Albrecht
|
$25.4 B
|
93
|
Aldi
|
Germany
|
|
11
|
Christy Walton & family
|
$25.3 B
|
58
|
Wal-Mart
|
United States
|
|
12
|
Charles Koch
|
$25 B
|
77
|
diversified
|
United States
|
|
12
|
David Koch
|
$25 B
|
72
|
diversified
|
United States
|
|
14
|
Sheldon Adelson
|
$24.9 B
|
79
|
casinos
|
United States
|
|
15
|
Liliane Bettencourt
|
$24 B
|
90
|
L'Oreal
|
France
|
|
16
|
Jim Walton
|
$23.7 B
|
65
|
Wal-Mart
|
United States
|
|
17
|
Alice Walton
|
$23.3 B
|
63
|
Wal-Mart
|
United States
|
|
18
|
S. Robson Walton
|
$23.1 B
|
69
|
Wal-Mart
|
United States
|
|
19
|
Mukesh Ambani
|
$22.3 B
|
55
|
petrochemicals, oil & gas
|
India
|
|
20
|
Michael Bloomberg
|
$22 B
|
71
|
Bloomberg LP
|
United State
|
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