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Ranked: The World’s Richest Families in 2020

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The World's Richest Families in 2020

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The World’s Richest Families in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t stopped the world’s wealthiest families from growing their fortunes. Over the past year, the richest family—the Waltons—grew their wealth by $25 billion, or almost $3 million per hour.

This graphic, using data from Bloomberg, ranks the 25 most wealthy families in the world. The data excludes first-generation wealth and wealth controlled by a single heir, which is why you don’t see Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates on the list. Families whose source of wealth is too diffused or opaque to be valued are also excluded.

The Full Breakdown

Intergenerational wealth is a powerful thing. It often prevails through market crashes, social turmoil, and economic uncertainty, and this year has been no exception.

Here’s a look at the 25 most wealthy families in 2020:

RankNameCompanyWealth, $BSectorLocation
1WaltonWalmart215Consumer services🇺🇸 Bentonville, Arkansas
2MarsMars120Consumer goods🇺🇸 McLean, Virginia
3KochKoch Industries109.7Industrials🇺🇸 Wichita, Kansas
4Al SaudN/A95Industrials🇸🇦 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
5AmbaniReliance Industries81.3Industrials🇮🇳 Mumbai, India
6HermèsHermès63.9Consumer services🇫🇷 Paris, France
7WertheimerChanel54.4Consumer services🇫🇷 Paris, France
8Johnson (Fidelity)Fidelity Investments46.3Financials🇺🇸 Boston, New York
9Boehringer, Von BaumbachBoehringer Ingelheim45.7Health care🇩🇪 Inglheim, Germany
10AlbrechtAldi41Consumer services🇩🇪 Rhineland, Germany
11ThomsonThomson Reuters40.6Communication🇨🇦 Ontario, Canada
12Hoffmann, OeriRoche38.8Health care🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland
13MulliezAuchan38.4Consumer services🇫🇷 Lille, France
14Cargill, MacMillanCargill38.1Industrials🇺🇸 Minneapolis, Minnesota
15Johnson (SC)SC Johnson37.3Consumer services🇺🇸 Racine, Wisconsin
16Van Damme, De Spoelberch, De MeviusAnheuser-Busch InBev36.8Consumer goods🇧🇪 Belgium
17QuandtBMW34.7Consumer services🇩🇪 Munich, Germany
18CoxCox Enterprises33.1Communication 🇺🇸 Atlanta, Georgia
19RausingTetra Laval32.9Materials🇬🇧 London, England
20NewhouseAdvance Publications31Communication🇺🇸 New York, New York
21ChearavanontCharoen Pokphand Group30.7Diversified🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand
22FerreroFerrero30.5Consumer goods🇮🇹 Alba, Italy
23KwokSun Hung Kai Properties30.4Real estate🇭🇰 Hong Kong
24PritzkerHyatt Hotels29.6Consumer services🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois
25LeeSamsung29Diversified🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea

*Note: The Al Saud’s net worth is based on cumulative payouts royal family members were estimated to have received over the past 50 years.

The Waltons are the richest family on the list by far, with a net worth of $215 billion—that’s $95 billion more than the second wealthiest family. Sam Walton, the family’s patriarch, founded Walmart in 1962. Since then, it’s become the world’s largest retailer by revenue.

When Sam passed away in 1992, his three children—James, Alice, and Rob—inherited his fortune. Now, the trio co-owns about half of Walmart.

In second place is the Mars family, with a net worth of $120 billion. The family is well-known for their candy empire, but interestingly, about half of the company’s value comes from pet care holdings. Mars Inc. owns several popular pet food brands, including Pedigree, Cesar, and Royal Canin—and it expanded its pet presence further in 2017 when it acquired VCA, a company with almost 800 small animal vet hospitals across the U.S. and Canada.

The Koch family is the world’s third-richest family. Their fortune is rooted in an oil firm founded by Fred C. Koch. Following Fred’s death in 1967, the firm was inherited by his four sons—Frederick, Charles, David, and William. After a family feud, Frederick and William left the business, and Charles and David went on to build the mega industrial conglomerate known as Koch Industries.

Despite being affected by the oil crash this year, the Koch family’s wealth still sits at $109.7 billion. Before David’s passing in 2019, he and his brother Charles were heavily involved in politics—and their political efforts were the subject of much scrutiny.

Richest Families, by Sector

It’s important to note that many of these families have diversified their investments across a variety of industries. For instance, while the Koch family’s wealth is largely concentrated in the industrial sector and commodities, they also dabble in real-estate—in May 2020, they made a $200 million bet on U.S. rental homes.

That being said, it’s interesting to see where each of these families started, and which sectors have bred the highest number of ultra-wealthy families.

Here’s a breakdown of each sector and how many families on the list got started in them:

SectorNumber of FamiliesTotal Wealth, $B
Consumer Services8514.3
Industrials4324.1
Consumer Goods3187.3
Communications3104.7
Health Care284.5
Diversified259.7
Financials146.3
Basical Materials132.9
Real Estate130.4

The top sector is consumer services—8 of the 25 families are heavily involved in this sector. Walmart helped generate the most wealth out of families in this space, while luxury brands Hermès and Chanel were the source of fortune for the next two wealthiest families.

Industrial is the second largest sector, with 4 of the 25 families involved. It’s also one of the most lucrative sectors—out of the top five wealthiest families on the list, three are in industrials. The Koch family is the wealthiest family in this category, followed by the Al Saud family and the Ambani family, respectively.

Communications and consumer goods are tied for third, with 3 of the 25 families in each. The Thomsons, who founded Thomson Reuters, are the wealthiest family in communications, while the Mars family has the highest net worth in the consumer goods sector.

Resilient, but not Bulletproof

Despite a global recession, most of the world’s wealthiest families seem to be doing just fine—however, not everyone on the list has been thriving this year.

The Koch family’s fortune dropped by $15 billion from 2019 to 2020, and the current political climate in Hong Kong has had a negative impact on the Kwok family’s real estate empire.

While intergenerational wealth certainty has resilience, how much economic and social turmoil can it withstand? It’ll be interesting to see which families make the list in 2021.

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Who Expects to Get Richer in 2024, by Both Generation and Gender

A survey of 600 high net worth individuals revealed there’s one subset of people who are confident of making it in 2024.

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A cropped graph showing the percentage of people surveyed in the Knight Frank Next Gen Survey, sorted by generation and gender, and whether they anticipate a wealth increase in 2024.

Who Expects to Get Richer in 2024, by Generation and Gender

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The jury is still out on how the global economy is expected to perform in 2024, but as seen during the pandemic, economic turmoil sometimes provides opportunities for the wealthy.

We visualize the percentage of high net worth individual (HNWI) respondents who expect their wealth to increase in 2024, categorized by generation and gender, from the Knight Frank Next Gen Survey, accessible in their latest wealth report.

The survey covered 600 global HNWIs, who are individuals with more than $1 million in assets or make more than $200,000 a year, and then categorized their responses by gender and generation.

Affluent Gen Z Women Eye Financial Gains in 2024

At a glance, there’s a very apparent generational difference in the expectations of getting richer in 2024.

About half (52%) of the surveyed Baby Boomers think their assets will grow, compared to Gen X (56%), Millennials, (69%), and Gen Z (75%).

GroupMaleFemaleOverall
👴 Boomer53%50%52%
👩‍🦳 Gen X56%56%56%
👩‍🦱 Millennial75%64%69%
🧑‍🦰 Gen Z69%81%75%
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 All Generations68%63%65%

Note: Percentage of respondents who said they expect their wealth will increase in 2024.

There’s also a noticeable gender difference. Men tend to be more optimistic than women, with one glaring exception.

A staggering 81% of the surveyed high net worth Gen Z women expect to make hay this year, making them the most optimistic of all the groups.

This corroborates a trend where Gen Z women were also the most optimistic in retirement planning. As CNBC reports, a combination of newer avenues of financial resources, and an openness towards advice, has given them a more optimistic attitude than their older counterparts.

Meanwhile, American Millennials are expected to become the richest generation ever as a $90 trillion asset transfer between Boomer parents and Millennial children begins to take place over the next two decades.

A huge percentage of that wealth comes in the form of property assets accumulated by generations before them. This especially includes houses, whose prices have skyrocketed over the last two decades.

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