The chart above shows the net worth of the billionaires of each region divided by the population of billionaires in said region. Unlike the previous metric which measured the net worth of billionaires against the total population, this metric shows how wealth is distributed amongst the billionaires of every region. Only the Western US has billionaires who average over $6 billion of net worth.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the highest average billionaire net worth, the Western US, and the region with the lowest, the Eastern EU, is $3.06 billion.
- The Western US has 1.97 times the average billionaire net worth that the Eastern EU does.
- The Western and Midwestern US each has a higher average billionaire net worth than each individual state in the Southern, Eastern, and Northern EU and the Northeastern US.
- The Western EU has a higher average billionaire net worth than each individual state in the Northern EU and the Northeastern US.
- The Southern US has a higher average billionaire net worth than each individual state in the Northern EU.
- Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Vermont do not have a single billionaire in the US.
- Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia do not have a single billionaire in the EU.
Caveats
- Billionaire data is from 2018.
- Figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Details
The Western US has the highest billionaire net worth overall, highest when its population is taken into account, and it also has the highest average billionaire net worth. The Eastern EU trails in all three metrics.
The Northern EU is the only region in both the EU and the US in which every state has at least one billionaire. However, it is also the region whose leading state has the lowest average billionaire net worth when compared to leading states of other regions.
Sources
Forbes. 2018. "The World's Billionaires List." Accessed October 2, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/21/#version:static.