With a net worth of $2 billion, Daniel Ludwig was the richest person in America
Forty years ago, having a net worth of only $2 billion was enough to put you at the top of Forbes’ annual list of the wealthiest people in the United States. In 1983, Forbes recognized Gordon Peter Getty as the richest person in America – his net worth was just $2.2 billion. Forty years ago, the mere billionaire club had just 13 members.
One could easily consider anyone with a billion dollars to be wealthy, but the amount of money required to be the wealthiest in the country has risen dramatically over the past four decades.
Now in 2023, you must have close to $3 billion just to get a rank in the top 400, and to be in the top 10…. One can only guess! For the second consecutive year, Elon Musk was at the top of the list with a net worth of $210 billion. He was also #1 on the list from the previous year.
In 1982, Forbes first created its yearly list of the 400 wealthiest individuals in the United States, with shipping entrepreneur Daniel Ludwig attaining the highest rank with an estimated net worth of $2 billion.
The net worth of each wealthiest individual on the list increased gradually but didn’t eclipse $10 billion until 1995, when Bill Gates, in his third year at the top, reported an estimated net worth of $15 billion. Gates held the highest ranking until 2018, when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos displaced him as the wealthiest American.
These are the 10 most recent holders of the ‘richest person in the world’ title:
2013: Bill Gates, $72 billion
2014: Bill Gates, $82 billion
2015: Bill Gates, $76 billion
2016: Bill Gates, $81 billion
2017: Bill Gates, $89 billion
2018: Jeff Bezos, $160 billion
2019: Jeff Bezos, $114 billion
2020: Jeff Bezos, $179 billion
2021: Jeff Bezos, $201 billion
2022: Elon Musk, $251 billion
2023: Elon Musk, $251 billion
Bill Gates had a net worth of $89 billion in 2017 – his last year at the top of the rich list. After it, Bezos became the first person to cross a net worth of $100 billion and he also ranked at the no.1 spot in 2018 with a net worth of $160 billion, which was the nearly double amount of Bill Gates’ net worth. In 2021, Jeff Bezos hit a similar milestone with a net worth of $201 billion and kept himself in the top spot of the ranking.
That brings us to Musk’s position as the wealthiest man in the U.S. in 2022, with his net worth of $251 billion being $100 billion more than that of Bezos. However, the latter has been narrowing the gap -while Musk’s net worth has stayed the same, Bezos added an extra $10 billion to his fortune in 2023, leaving him only $90 billion away from the Tesla founder.
It may not be an easy gap to close, but it will be much easier for Bezos than most Americans. U.S. households have a median net worth of just $166,900, according to Census Bureau data. It would take around 1.5 million households with that net worth to match Musk’s fortune.
The exclusive club of centibillionaires may soon have a new member. According to Forbes’ current assessment, Michael Bloomberg is worth an estimated $96.3 billion.
Why do we have multiple centibillionaires today–and why are we on a path to have trillionaires soon?
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