The richest one percent capture nearly half of all income worldwide, while almost half of the planet’s population lives in poverty and controls just 0.52% of global wealth.
These estimates are set out in Oxfam’s annual report on global inequality, prepared by Oxfam—an international confederation of charitable and humanitarian organizations.
According to the document, in 2025 the combined wealth of the ultra-rich reached a record high. Billionaires’ total assets rose by $2.5 trillion to $18.3 trillion. Since March 2020, their wealth has increased by 81%.
Oxfam notes that the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, earns in four seconds an amount comparable to the average annual income worldwide. Overall, the richest one percent accounts for 43.8% of global wealth.
“We are living in the age of billionaires—and that is bad news for the world,” said Charlotte Becker, head of Oxfam’s German branch. According to her, particular concern is raised by the fact that the economic power of the ultra-rich is increasingly being converted into political influence, which the authors of the report believe is undermining democracy.