The world is about to have five trillionaires soon, predicts Oxfam

The GDP of the eurozone is approximately $15tn(€14.5tn), the equivalent of what billionaires across the globe owned in 2024. The number of people with the prestigious title increased to 2,769 last year, a crowd that could almost fill the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

According to the anti-poverty group Oxfam International, billionaire wealth surged by $2tn (€1.93bn) in 2024, equivalent to roughly $5.7bn (€5.5bn) a day, three times faster than the year before, while the number of people living in poverty, living on less than $6.85 (€6.64) per day, has barely changed since 1990.

The report about global inequality also predicts at least five trillionaires will be created over the next decade. A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear during that time.

Oxfam’s research “Takers Not Makers” was published as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepared for an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum. Meanwhile, billionaire Donald Trump, backed by the world’s richest man Elon Musk,has become the 47th President of the United States.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar, adding that the “failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated – by three times – but so too has their power”.

Referring to incoming US President Donald Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk, Behar said: “It’s not about one specific individual. It’s the economic system that we have created where the billionaires are now pretty much being able to shape economic policies, social policies, which eventually gives them more and more profit”, according to AP.

Like Biden’s call for making billionaires “begin to pay their fair share” through the US tax code, Oxfam called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth, and to “dismantle the new aristocracy”.

The group called for steps such as the break-up of monopolies, capping CEO pay, and regulation of corporations to ensure they pay “living wages” to workers.

On average, Oxfam said, low- and middle-income countries are spending nearly half their national budgets on debt repayments. This far outstrips their combined investment in education and healthcare. It also noted that life expectancy in Africa is just under 64 years of age, compared with over 79 years in Europe.