The Forbes magazine's latest profiles of the youngest billionaires
in the world brought forth many surprises. While young billionaires
from America made the money themselves, world's youngest
billionaires of other countries obtained their fortune through
inheritances. The magazine published a list of 1,125 worldwide,
worth $4.4 tn; an increase of 179 billionaires from a year
ago. Two-thirds of the 1,125 are self-made, and 42% (469)
hail from the US. The average billionaire in the US is worth
$3.4 bn against $4.3 bn for the average foreign billionaire.
Over the years, Forbes magazine has been listing the world's
richest people. But this year, it introduced another list;
the world's richest youngsters. Twenty-three year old Mark
Zuckerberg, the US-based CEO of Facebook.com, began a social
networking site that connects you with friends and relatives
whom you have lost contact with. This site is now worth
$1.5 bn, four years after its launch. Mark is the third-youngest
to crack the billionaire's list, since Forbes began tracking
the ages of the people on the list a decade ago, while other
two inherited their money.
Other two billionaires who made
the list at a younger age than Mark Zuckerberg are—Albert
II, Prince of Thurn and Taxis, who inherited his wealth
at the age of 7, when his father died in 1990. He did not
gain access to his fortune until he turned 18. Followed
by Hind Hariri, (inherited at 22) youngest of the Lebanese
heirs of a banking, real estate, oil and telecommunications
tycoon.
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