On the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam announced that the number of billionaires in the world increased by 204 new billionaires last year. Oxfam said that the wealth of the super-rich is growing: their total wealth has increased from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in 2024, in one year. In contrast, 733 million people do not have enough food – about 152 million more than in 2019.
Oxfam's "Takers not Makers" study finds that there are currently 2,769 billionaires in the world. Their wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than a year earlier, by about $100 million a day.
In Germany, the total wealth of the super-rich increased by $26.8 billion in 2024, to a total of $625.4 billion. Nine new billionaires were also registered, so there are now 130 billionaires in Germany. Germany now has the most billionaires after the US, China and India. Oxfam calculates that German billionaires benefit above average from inheritance. While 36 percent of billionaire wealth worldwide comes from inheritance, in Germany this figure rises to 71 percent.
At the same time, poverty has increased significantly in recent years. Many people are unable to maintain their usual standard of living. "This extreme inequality is largely caused by unfair tax policies," explained Oxfam spokesman Manuel Schmitt. "The super-rich often pay less in taxes and contributions than middle-class families," he says.
Oxfam: Threats to democracy
According to the authors of the study, the rich are the biggest beneficiaries of the crisis years. From the perspective of this humanitarian organization, the growing gap has consequences for the global situation, but also for the situation in national societies. The super-rich have purposefully ensured that unjust structures remain stable. "Economically strong countries in the global north continue to set rules that benefit the super-rich and their corporations," the report says. This, the study says, is still a consequence of colonialism.
Oxfam Germany's executive director, Serap Altinisik, warns of negative consequences for democracies. "Wealth goes hand in hand with political power. We see this today with the return of President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk," says Altinisik, adding: "The growth of the wealth of the super-rich is unlimited, while there is hardly any progress in the fight against poverty."
American tech entrepreneurs at the top
The report is based on data from Forbes magazine. "Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still be billionaires," says the Forbes report, which also includes American technology entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer (both of Microsoft) and Larry Page (Google).
The super-rich are believed to have increasing influence over tax legislation. For example, in reducing corporate income tax, disproportionate capital gains taxes, exempting inheritance tax, and abolishing wealth tax.
"Between 1990 and 2017, the number of countries with a value-added tax tripled from 50 to more than 150, while the number of countries with a net wealth tax fell from twelve to four," says the Oxfam study. DW
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