Billionaires’ wealth soared in 2024, anti-poverty group says

20 January 2025, 06:05

CORRECTION Switzerland Davos
CORRECTION Switzerland Davos. Picture: PA

The anti-poverty group Oxfam International’s latest report on global inequality is calling for caps on CEO pay, better salaries for workers.

Billionaires’ wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than the year before, a top anti-poverty group reported on Monday as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepared for an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Oxfam International, in its latest assessment of global inequality timed to the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting, also predicts at least five trillionaires will crop up over the next decade.

A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear during that time.

Musk-Neuralink Explainer
Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom (Matt Rourke/AP)

OxFam’s research adds weight to a warning by outgoing President Joe Biden last week of a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people.”

The group’s sharp-edged report, titled “Takers Not Makers,” also says the number of people in poverty has barely budged since 1990.

The World Economic Forum expects to host some 3,000 attendees, including business executives, academics, government officials, and civic group leaders at its annual meeting in the Alpine village of Davos.

President-elect Donald Trump, who visited Davos twice during his first term and was set to take the oath of office on Monday, is expected to take part in the forum’s event by video on Thursday.

He has long championed wealth accumulation — including his own — and counts multibillionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.

“What you’re seeing at the moment is a billionaire president taking oaths today, backed by the richest man. So this is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in an interview, referring to Mr Trump and Mr Musk.

“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,” he added.

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

Immigration Mass Deportation
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women Lilac Luncheon (Steven Senne/AP)

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

Many investors racked up strong gains in 2024, with strong performances for top tech companies and stock-market indexes like the S&P 500, as well as the price of gold and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Oxfam said billionaire wealth grew by 2 trillion dollars (£1.6 trillion) last year, or roughly 5.7 billion dollars (£4.6 billion) a day, three times faster than in 2023. The number of billionaires rose by 204 to 2,769, and the 10 richest men saw their wealth rise nearly 100 million dollars (£81.8 million) a day on average, it said.

Citing World Bank data, the group pointed to lingering poverty, saying the number of people living on less than 6.85 dollars (£5.61) per day has “barely changed” since 1990. Oxfam used Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire List” as of the end of November for data on the ultra-rich.

By contrast, at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week in 2024, and three-fifths of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, monopoly power or “crony connections,” it said.

On average, Oxfam said, low- and middle-income countries are spending nearly half their national budgets on debt repayments.

It also noted that life expectancy in Africa is just under 64 years of age, compared to over 79 years in Europe.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

JD Vance

Free speech is 'in retreat' across Europe, claims JD Vance - as US brands it a 'bigger threat than Russia'

Hostages (L-R) Sasha Trufanov, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Yair Horn,

Hamas confirms names of Israeli hostages due for release on Saturday

Danielle McLaughlin's killer Baghat was finally found guilty today

Indian man is found guilty of raping and murdering Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin in a field in Goa

Starmer welcomes Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, to Downing Street

Starmer tells Zelenskyy Ukraine remains on 'irreversible path to NATO membership' as leaders share phone call

Kayaker Adrian Simancas after being briefly swallowed by a humpback whale

Kayaker breaks silence over 'terrifying' moment he was swallowed whole by humpback whale - then spat back out

Pope Francis

Pope Francis to be admitted to hospital for bronchitis treatment

One Briton has died in a car crash in New Zealand

One Brit dead and three fighting for lives after car crashes into tourists’ hired bikes in New Zealand

A drone hit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine

Russian 'high explosive' drone hits Chernobyl causing 'significant damage' to shelter protecting world from radiation

JD Vance has warned the US could take military action against Russia.

US threatens Russia with military action if Ukraine peace talks fail as Putin hits Chernobyl with 'high-explosive warhead'

Donald Trump has been accused of 'appeasement'

Ukraine’s future at stake as world leaders gather in Munich - with Trump accused of ‘appeasing’ Putin

Near-Earth asteroid, artwork

NASA scientist reveals list of countries that face being hit by huge 'city killer' asteroid the size of Big Ben

This illustrative image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and United States President Donald Trump (right).

Donald Trump is 'setting preconditions for withdrawing from NATO', his former advisor tells LBC

Naya Rivera

Glee star Naya Rivera's heartbreaking final words to her son before she drowned revealed

The young man was swallowed by a whale

Shocking moment whale swallows kayaker whole before spitting him back out

Deise Moura has been arrested on suspicion of killing her relatives with a poisonous Christmas cake

Woman accused of murder after 'Christmas cake poisoning' that killed three is found dead in prison cell

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour

Mystery deepens over British couple found dead in France as wife 'made appointments' before deaths