Dream AlcaláNewsChina has the youngest billionaires

China has the youngest billionaires

China may not have the most billionaires, but it does have the youngest.

According to a report from Wealth-X and UBS, China’s 157 billionaires have an average age of 53 years old. That’s nine years younger than the global average.

China has the second-highest number of billionaires in the world after the U.S., which has 515. And China has added 10 new billionaires over the past year.

Still, China’s billionaires have come under fire recently for their wealth and power. The government recently charged one of its top billionaires, venture capitalist and human rights supporter Wang Gongquan, with “assembling a crowd to disrupt order.”

The number of global billionaires hit a record 1,426 in 2013, with Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim claiming the top spot once again and Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega, Warren Buffet and Larry Ellison nabbing the next four spots on the list.

The US took the lead with the most billionaires in a country at 442, followed by mainland China at 122, Russia at 110 and Germany at 58.

The number of billionaires from the mainland has recovered from last year, when it was 96. In 2010, there were 110. Analysts attribute this year’s surge to the pickup in equity and property markets.

India is ranked sixth in a list of top ten countries with most billionaires but is at a much lower ninth slot in total net worth sweepstakes, a new Wealth report by WealthX and UBS titled “Billionaire Census 2013″ has shown. The country has 103 billionaires, higher than that of Hong Kong , France, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland but their aggregate net worth is just $180 billion only above Switzerland’s $128 billion of 61 billionaires.

The US tops the list with 515 billionaires having an eye popping net worth of $2,064 billion. This is over three times the number of billionaires in China, which has the world’s second largest billionaire population of 157. The total worth of the Chinese billionaires is $384 billion—about one-fifth of corresponding US figure.

Interestingly, the worth of German and UK billionaires is much higher than that of China’s though they have fewer billionaires—148 and 135, respectively. And total net worth of Indian billionaires is not even half of China’s. Moreover, as much as 66 percent of the world’s billionaires are in these top ten countries, highlighting the concentration of the super rich in a select few “hot spots”, the report said.

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