The U.S. is dethroned by China as the country now has the most number of billionaires. According to a report released Thursday, China molded 242 billionaires over the past year, making a 70 percent jump in its billionaire population. China's 596 billionaires surpassed the number of U.S. billionaires at 537.
As per the statement quoted by CNBC, the Hurun Report's chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, "Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever, and creating more wealth than any country has ever done before in a year."
The number of Chinese billionaires, as figured out by Hurun, a Chinese-based wealth research and luxury-advisory company, differ from those of Forbes, which said in March that China had only 213 billionaires, compared with 536 in the U.S.
Yet the people behind Hurun nonetheless know that despite widespread fears of a slowdown of the economy in China and the government's crackdown on the wealthy, the Chinese super-rich continue to prosper. The total combined wealth of China's billionaires reached $2.1 trillion, according to the report.
Wang Jianlin, chairman of conglomerate Dalian Wanda, is the richest man in China, who snatched the top spot back from Jack Ma of Alibaba.
With a net worth of $34.4 billion, Wang Jianlin made high-profile purchases in recent years; including a Monet he bought at Sotheby's this Spring for $20.4 million.
MSN said the crackdown on corruption by the Chinese government among the rich has had ripple effects for many names on the billionaire list. Sixteen percent of the people on the 2014 rich list are in "varying degrees of trouble with the authorities," according to Hurun.
According to the report, about 95 percent of the Chinese billionaires are self-made.
The fastest-growing source of wealth among the Top 10 is from technology businesses, yet real estate was still the largest source of wealth for most rich Chinese. Five of the Top 10 billionaires in the world made their money from real estate.
