bill gates, pictured last week, was once again named the world's richest person with a wealth of $792 billion  for the world's super rich, 2015 is already shaping up to be a good year as the number of billionaires reached a record high there were 1,826 billionaires this year, up from 1,645 in 2014, according to forbes and the world's richest person got even richer bill gates's net worth rose to $792 billion in 2015 from $76 billion last year the microsoft co founder's fortune increased $32 billion   despite a $15 billion gift of microsoft shares to the bill & melinda gates foundation in november that put him at the top of the magazine's list of the world's billionaires for the second consecutive year gates has topped the list for 16 of the last 21 years in second place is telecom mogul carlos slim helu, with a net worth of $771 billion he had topped the list in 2013 next is investor warren buffett, who moved up one slot this year with a net worth of $727 billion in fourth was amancio ortega, founder of the inditex fashion group that includes zara clothing retail shops he counts a fortune of $645 billion seven of the richest people in the world are from the us completing the top ten is helu, of mexico, amancio ortega of spain who built his wealth with retail chain zara and french l'oreal heiress, liliane bettencourt it's the 29th year for forbes billionaires' list facebook's mark zuckerberg jumped five spots to number 16, his first time in the world's 20 richest people jack ma, whose alibaba online marketplace made the biggest global ipo ever last year, was ranked among the world's 50 richest people, along with two other chinese nationals this year's newcomers included michael jordan who was ranked at no 1,741 the average net worth of those on the list was $386 billion and those under the age of 40 took up 46 places on the list snapchat's evan spiegel, 24, is the world's youngest billionaire while uber co founders, travis kalanick and garrett camp, and their first employee, ryan graves, also made up the under 40s group billions: beer heiress tatiana casiraghi  1 mark zuckerberg, 30   facebook ($334bn) 2 dustin moskovitz, 30   facebook ($79bn) 3 elizabeth holmes, 31   blood testing ($45bn) 4 tom persson, 30   h&m ($3bn) 5 julio mario santo domingo, iii, 29   bavaria beer ($22bn) 6 tatiana casiraghi, 31   bavaria beer ($22bn) 7 nathan blecharczyk, 31   airbnb ($19bn) 8 anton kathrein jr, 30   antennas ($17bn) 9 evan spiegel, 24   snapchat ($15bn) 10 bobby murphy, 25   snapchat ($15bn) welcome to the club! michael jordan became a newly minted billionaire in 2015, according to forbes  the world's youngest female billionaire is elizabeth holmes, 31, a stanford university dropout who is the head of blood testing firm theranos then there were those who dropped off the list   138 people including designer michael kors and ukrainian president petro poroshenko the combined wealth of the billionaires club is double the gdp of germany according to nbc oxfam claims that the world's growing wealth divide could see the world's wealthiest 1 per cent outstripping the other 99 per cent next year 1 bill gates   microsoft, $792 bn  2 carlos slim helu    telecoms, $771 billion  3 warren buffet   investor, $727 billion  4 amancio ortega   zara, $645 billion  5 larry ellison   oracle, $543 billion  6 charles koch   various, $429 billion  6 david koch   various, $429 billion  8 christy walton    walmart, $417 billion  9 jim walton   walmart, $406 billion  10 liliane bettencourt   l'oreal, $401 billion  11 alice walton    walmart, $394 billion  12 s robson walton   walmart, $391 billion  13 bernard arnault   lvmh, $372 billion  14 michael bloomberg   bloomberg, $355bn  15 jeff bezos   amazon, $348 billion  16 mark zuckerberg  facebook,  $334 billion  17 li ka shing   various, $333 billion  18 sheldon adelson   casinos, $314 billion  19 larry page   google, $297 billion  20 sergey brin   google, $292 billion  snapchat's evan spiegel, 24, is the world's youngest billionaire (left) the world's youngest female billionaire is elizabeth holmes, 31, the head of blood testing firm theranos (right) 1 christy walton, 60, $417 billion, walmart  with  wealth inherited from her late husband john, mrs walton holds the largest stake of the walmart empire she married the son of walmart founder sam however, the retail heir died when a small plane he was piloting crashed in 2005 christy and the rest of the walton family made headlines after they did not sign on to bill and melinda gates and warren buffett's pledge to give half their wealth to good causes while they were alive the family has given an estimated 04 per cent of their wealth to charity 2 liliane bettencourt, 92, $401bn, l'oreal  the 92 year old heiress of french cosmetics company l'oreal suffers from dementia and is no longer involved with running the company she inherited her stake from father eugene schueller, who first began selling beauty products in the early 20th century in the 1950s she married andre bettencourt, who also worked at l'oreal after being involved in a french fascist group that collaborated with nazi persecution of jews during world war ii he died in 2007 after leaving l'oreal in the midst of revelations about his past the years since ms bettencourt's retirement have seen her give away large sums of money there is currently a fraud trial of ten people accused of using her dementia to swindle her out of millions 3 alice walton, 65, $386bn, walmart  alice walton also inherited her stake in her father's empire, though she has not been involved in running the business she instead chooses to devote her time, energy and vast financial resources to art, building a 200,000 square foot museum filled with modern works in northwest arkansas, according to forbes though her primary residence is a horse ranch in texas, she also owns two floors on park avenue where protesters demanded higher wages for her company's workers last year 4 jacqueline mars, 75, $27bn, mars inc  life for jacqueline mars has always been pretty sweet she inherited $268billion from the company which bears her name after her grandfather started the business at the turn of the last century she shares the company evenly with her two brothers, forrest jr and john 5 maria franca fissolo, 97, $234bn, nutella & chocolates  the widow of michele ferrero, who built ferrero group with its iconic ferrero rocher chocolates and nutella spread mr ferrero died in february 2014 he had taken over his father pietro's business which started in italy during the second world war from his wife's pastry shop laurene powell jobs, 51 (pictured 2013), inherited shares of apple from late husband steve  6 laurene powell jobs, 51, $195bn, apple  laurene powell jobs, widow of steve jobs, inherited the majority of her wealth from her stake in apple and disney the graduate of stanford business school keeps busy with her own set of initiatives, including running the emerson collective, which fosters entrepreneurship for the underprivileged and advocates for education reform the businesswoman is also on the board of trustees at stanford though she generally keeps a low profile, the widow was recently spotted on a caribbean vacation with former washington dc mayor adrian fenty, 44 the pair are believed to have been dating since 2013 7 anne cox chambers, 95, $17bn, cox  the only media mogul among the world's wealthiest women, anne cox chamber's inherited her stake in various cox media ventures from her father james a vast information empire, mrs cox chambers has shares in companies including cox communications cable company, kelley blue book automotive reselling manual and many local television and radio stations she has remained active in various affairs beyond her father's businesses, however the heiress served as ambassador to belgium during the administration of president jimmy carter and was the first woman member of the atlanta chamber of commerce 7 susanne klatten, 52, $168bn, bmw  susanne klatten, 52, began working for her father herbert quandt's company under an alias before marrying an engineer and inheriting her wealth she also owns stakes in a wind turbine company, nordex, and chemical company altana the mogul earned a bachelors at university of buckingham in england, an mba in switzerland and has three children 8 johanna quandt, 88, $139bn, bmw  susanne klatten's mother johanna quandt, 88, was herbert quandt's third wife after working as a secretary for the automaker beyond a large stake of the car manufacturer, which makes vehicles including minis and rolls royces, she also controls part of a security software company based in the netherlands both parents of mrs quandt were art historians she now lives in the german spa town of bad homburg, near frankfurt neither mrs quandt or mrs klatten have ever sold a share of herbert quandt's company 9 iris fontbona, 72, $135bn, various ventures  chilean iris fontbona, 72, inherited her wealth from her influential family as well as from a marriage to andrónico luksic her assorted business interests include chile's largest brewer and a resort in croatia the luksics make investment decisions collectively source: forbes 
bill gates's $792 billion $76 billion microsoft carlos slim helu $771 bn warren buffett $727 billion
there were 1,826 billionaires this year   up from 1,645 in 2014  bill gates's net worth rose to $792 billion in 2015 from $76 billion last year  the co founder of microsoft has topped the list for 16 of the last 21 years  in second place was telecom mogul carlos slim helu, with a net worth of $771 bn, third was investor warren buffett, with $727 billion 