The 5 Latin American countries with the most billionaires

According to the latest report by Forbes, a medium specialized in financial matters, in 2020 a total of 2,095 billionaires were registered worldwide, where the pandemic did not go unnoticed since 226 people left the list and 51% of those present have less money than the previous year. As for the countries where these people reside, the United States is the place with the most billionaires as in the other years, with 614 rich people living in this country, China is the second with 456 (including Hong Kong and Macao), both have a notable difference with the third place, which is Germany with 107.

Regarding the cities that are home to the most millionaires, it should be noted that the richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, has as his city of residence Seattle, located in the state of Washington, the US capital. However, he does not enter the top 3, since the city with the most billionaire inhabitants is New York (92 people), followed by Hong Kong (71) and Moscow (70). As for the Latin American countries with the largest multimillion dollar presence, they are:

5. Colombia

The "coffee" country this time does not stand out for this area but for the banking sector, where two of the three billionaires who reside in the country are located. In the first place and as the wealthiest man in Colombia is Luis Carlos Sarmiento, owner of Grupo Aval that is dedicated to the financial and banking sector, only Sarmiento has a fortune of 9 billion dollars. For their part, the three Colombian millionaires have a capital of 13.7 billion dollars according to Forbes, this makes it the fifth country with the most multimillionaire residents in the region, above Peru (2 people) and Venezuela (1).

4. Argentina

According to the latest Forbes list, Argentina has a capital of 8.8 billion dollars among all its billionaires, which in this case are a group of 4 people where the oil industry predominates, since two of them are dedicated to this sector. On the other hand, there is also a presence of the pharmaceutical industry and electronic commerce. The wealthiest person in this country today according to the Forbes real-time ranking is Marcos Galperin, owner and founder of Mercado Libre, an e-commerce company with a presence in several countries in the region, for which Galperin has a wealth of of 6.8 billion dollars.

It may interest you: MercadoLibre: The Latin “Amazon” that breaks records in the region

3. Chile

Despite being a relatively small country with almost 19 million inhabitants, Chile also has a significant number of billionaires and fortunes, accumulating an approximate of $ 21 billion among its 7 billionaires. These are mainly dedicated to the mining, investments, banks, fertilizers and forestry sector.  As a curiosity, its current president, Sebastian Piñera is within the ranking with a current fortune of 2.9 billion dollars thanks to various investments. However, the wealthiest person in Chile and by far is Iris Fontbona and her family, who work in the mining and beverage industry. Currently, they have a net worth of 20.7 billion dollars, a fortune that has grown slightly more than double since Forbes published the list of countries, so that in real time the accumulated capital of Chilean billionaires could reach 37 billion dollars.

2. Mexico

Perhaps the country with the best known and wealthiest billionaire in the region,  Carlos Slim. The telecommunications magnate accumulates a wealth of 61.3 billion dollars, this makes him the richest person in Latin America and 18th in the world. However, Slim is not the only billionaire in Mexico, since the Central American country has up to 12 people with huge fortunes obtained from various sectors such as telecommunications, beverages, banks, mining and retailers. According to Forbes, Mexico accumulates a capital of approximately 103 billion dollars.

1. Brazil

Again Brazil leads the ranking of Latin America with more billionaires in their country and by far, with a total of 44 people within its territory with figures that are read in billions of dollars. In fact, the wealth of these people totals an estimated $ 127 billion, the largest fortunes coming from the beer, technology, investment and retail sectors. Its biggest billionaire, Joseph Safra, died on December 10, 2020 of natural causes. Currently Jorge Paulo Lemann and his family are the wealthiest in Brazil, with a current equity of 19.7 billion dollars, mainly from AB Inbev, the world's largest brewery.