There are now more billionaires in Canada and worldwide says Wealth-X
The number of billionaires in Canada has reached 53 with a combined wealth of US$100 billion.
The figures are revealed in the global Wealth-X Billionaire Census 2021, which also shows that the world now has 3,204 billionaires with a combined wealth of almost $10 trillion.
The population of this ultra-wealthy cohort has grown by 13% globally, but Canada saw a 15% increase, although Canadian billionaires’ wealth grew at 4.5%, lagging the global rise of almost 6%.
Median wealth across the global billionaire population was $1.9 billion, while the 670 new additions to the group had a median wealth of $1.4 billion.
North America and Asia experienced the most dynamic population growth in 2020, an increase of 17.5% and 16.5% respectively.
Given the disruption of the pandemic, the gains seen in 2020 are notable and have taken the global billionaire population to above 3,000 for the first time.
Almost half of the top 15 wealthiest billionaires’ fortunes stem from the technology sector with this group including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Bernard Arnault, and Elon Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man with a $200bn fortune according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
Canada’s richest billionaire is Sherry Brydson, the largest shareholder in investment firm Woodbridge, which controls Thomson Reuters. Bloomberg puts her current fortune at $14 billion, making her 152nd in the world as of Sept. 22.
Among the new billionaires in the Wealth-X report, there was a slightly greater focus on the technology and healthcare sectors than the rest of the billionaire population.
However, when considering the sectors to which billionaires devote most of their time (not necessarily where their wealth comes from), banking and finance is top with the overall billionaire population (20%) and the new 2020 cohort (18%).
Asset allocation
How does this growing group of billionaires structure their investment portfolios?
Wealth-X found that liquid assets including cash, income, and dividends is the largest single share of asset allocation, although this declines as wealth grows while public holdings and real estate assets increase.
Wealthier younger
The census has also revealed that, across the world, new billionaires are younger than the wider ultra-wealthy population.
While the average age of the general billionaire population has a median age of 65.9 year, with half falling in the 50-70 age range, the new additions in 2020 had a median age of 63.2 with the 50-70 age range accounting for almost 57%.
Men still dominate, accounting for 88% of the global count.
The full report is available at https://go.wealthx.com/2021-billionaire-census