The rich are getting richer.
The combined wealth of the world’s most wealthy rose to $15 trillion from $13 trillion in just 12 months, according to Oxfam’s latest annual inequality report — notching the second largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since the global charity began tracking this data.
Last year alone, roughly 204 new billionaires were minted, bringing the total number of billionaires to 2,769, up from 2,565 in 2023, the global charity found.
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“Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated — by three times — but so too has their power,” Oxfam International’s Executive Director Amitabh Behar said in a statement Sunday.
“We’ve reached a new era now, we are in the era of the billionaire,” said Jenny Ricks, general secretary of the human rights group Fight Inequality Alliance. “The challenge now is turning this around and making this the era of the 99%.”
Despite the fact that America ranks first as the richest nation in the world in terms of gross domestic product, 36.8 million Americans live in poverty, accounting for 11.1% of the total population, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We need government serving people’s real needs and rights,” Ricks said, with increased funding for education and healthcare, among other social services.
‘Tax us, the super rich’
After Oxfam’s report was released, some of the world’s wealthiest people called on elected representatives of the world’s leading economies to introduce higher taxes on the very richest in society.
In an open letter to political leaders attending the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, more than 370 billionaires and millionaires said that they wanted to “tackle the corrosive impact of extreme wealth.”
To that end, “start with the simplest solution: tax us, the super rich,” the letter said.
36% of billionaire wealth is inherited
Oxfam found that 36% of billionaire wealth is now inherited. Much of that wealth will also get handed down. A separate report by UBS found that baby boomer billionaires’ heirs stand to inherit an estimated $6.3 trillion over the next 15 years.
“As the great wealth transition gains momentum … we expect the proportion of multigenerational billionaires to increase,” the report said.
According to Oxfam’s analysis, half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants.
In the U.S., there is a federal estate tax up to 40%, depending on the amount of the estate over the current exclusion limit.
In 2025, the basic exclusion amount rose to $13.99 million per person, up from $13.61 million in 2024.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has vowed to fully extend the trillions in tax breaks he enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, which also doubled the estate and gift tax exemption.
After 2025, the higher estate and gift tax exemption will sunset without action from Congress. If the provision expires, the exclusion will revert to 2017 levels, adjusted for inflation.
Some Democrats have pushed back on TCJA extensions, noting that they disproportionately benefit the wealthy, rather than middle-class families.