Number of women billionaires rises seven-fold in 20 years: UBS-PwC report

Asia has seen the strongest growth of female billionaires in the past 10 years

The number of women billionaires has grown at a faster clip than men billionaires, multiplying by 6.6 times over the last two decades compared to 5.2 times for men, with Asian female entrepreneurs standing out as the main driver of this development, says a latest report by UBS Group AG and PwC, “The changing faces of billionaires”.

“Our research shows the number of female billionaires has grown by a factor of 6.6, from 22 in 1995 to 145 in 2014. By comparison, the number of male billionaires remains far larger at 1,202, but has grown by a relatively smaller factor of 5.2,” the UBS-PwC report says.

The survey of over 1,300 billionaires analysed data from the last 19 years across the 14 largest billionaire markets, accounting for 75 per cent of global billionaire wealth. While the global GDP has almost tripled from $30 trillion to over $77 trillion over the last two decades, the wealth of billionaires in the study has increased almost eight-fold, from $0.7 trillion in 1995 to $5.4 trillion in 2014.

According to the report, Asia has seen the strongest growth of women billionaires in the past 10 years with their numbers growing by a factor of 8.3 from only 3 to 25 today. This compares to a growth factor of 2.7 (from 21 to 57) in Europe and 1.7 or 37 to 63 in the US.

Women billionaires in Asia make up almost one-fifth of the global women billionaire population and generally are younger than their global counterparts, the findings suggest. Nearly half (52 per cent) of Asia’s women billionaires are first-generation entrepreneurs. On the other hand, within Europe and the US, women billionaires have mostly inherited their wealth (93 per cent have done so in Europe, versus 81 per cent in the US). Notably, almost a fifth (19 per cent) of US women billionaires are self-made, compared with seven per cent in Europe.

"The rise of female and Asian billionaires over the last two decades is creating an entirely new billionaire demographic, and I see no signs of slowing. While there is no such thing as a typical billionaire, virtually all are focused on building a lasting legacy for future generations. Achieving this goal increasingly requires strategic thought and long-term planning," said Josef Stadler, Head Global Ultra High Net Worth, UBS.

High dropout rate

The dropout rate from this billionaire list in the past 20 years has also been high. The report counted 289 billionaires in 1995, of which only 126 remain today. The rest, according to the report, dropped out due to death, family dilution or business failure. Over the same period, 1,221 new billionaires were created bringing the total number to 1,347 billionaires in 2014.

However, those who prevailed greatly increased their wealth with consumer and retail, technology and financial services being the dominant industries, making up for two-thirds of the total wealth of the lasting billionaires today.

The technology sector in particular, the report says, is home to the most enduring billionaires while industrials, real estate and health industries are sectors where billionaire wealth is more fleeting.

"The 126 prevailing billionaires have created $1 trillion of wealth, approximately 21% of that produced by our entire global billionaire population over the period. By 2014, the average wealth of the remaining billionaires had grown their average wealth to $11 billion from $2.9 billion in 1995, multiplying their assets by a factor of 3.8 and outperforming global GDP growth of just 2.5," says the UBS - PwC report.