The last year has proven challenging for the world’s richest people. The Billionaires 2023 ranking features 2,640 people, down from 2,668 in 2022. Collectively, billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion—$500 billion less than in March last year—and nearly half are poorer than they were in 2022.
This is also reflected in the Middle East, with nine of the 21 Arab billionaires worth less now than they were a year ago. However, their collective wealth has gone up from $52.9 billion in 2022 to $53.9 billion in 2023. Billionaires from Saudi Arabia were excluded from global list for the sixth consecutive year.