Growth of billionaire wealth globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, by industry

Development of billionaire wealth worldwide from April to July 2020, by industry

Billionaire wealth in industrials grew fastest during the early pandemic, rising about 44 percent from April to July 2020, just ahead of technology on about 41 percent and health industries on about 36 percent. Real estate grew slowest, at about 13 percent. The early pandemic produced one of the sharpest and most uneven surges in billionaire wealth on record, rewarding the industries best placed for a locked-down, digital world and leaving others far behind. On the UBS and PwC figures, industrials billionaire wealth grew about 44.4 percent from April to July 2020, technology about 41.1 percent, health about 36.3 percent, materials 29.6 percent and financial services 26 percent, while real estate grew just 12.8 percent. It is one of the most-cited illustrations of how the pandemic reshaped great wealth, showing a rebound so fast and so concentrated that billionaire fortunes reached a record high within months of the March 2020 crash. The four-month window from April to July 2020 captured the fastest rebound in billionaire wealth the UBS and PwC researchers had ever recorded, and it left a clear map of which industries thrived and which lagged. It remains one of the most widely cited data points on wealth and the pandemic, a stark illustration of how the crisis, for the very wealthiest, became an opportunity rather than a setback.

Total billionaire wealth reached a record 10.2 trillion dollars by the end of July 2020, a rise of about 27 percent from the April low. The wider industry picture sits in our billionaire industries, billionaire wealth by region and billionaire wealth by gender coverage.

The pandemic jump: billionaire wealth in every industry rose from April to July 2020, with technology, health and industrials showing the steepest gains over the four-month rebound.

The pandemic accelerated a divergence that had been building for years, with technology, health and industrials pulling ahead of the rest, a shift our technology and financial markets coverage frames through the stocks behind the fortunes.

A note on the data. The figures show the development of billionaire wealth from April to July 2020 by industry, from the UBS and PwC Billionaires Insights report. The period runs from 7 April, the reports cut-off, to 31 July 2020, extended to capture the pandemic rebound. The report, the seventh in the UBS and PwC series, covers more than 2,000 billionaires across 43 markets that account for about 98 percent of global billionaire wealth, making it one of the most comprehensive sources on the subject. The study period, normally ending on 7 April, was extended to 31 July 2020 specifically to capture the transformative effect of COVID-19 on billionaire wealth, making it a rare window on a crisis in real time.

Billionaire Wealth Growth by Industry

The table sets out the growth in billionaire wealth by industry from April to July 2020. It shows industrials, technology and health at the top and real estate, other diversified and entertainment at the bottom, a clear split between pandemic winners and laggards. Reading down the column shows the split clearly, with three industries above 35 percent growth and the slowest, real estate, at under 13 percent, a spread of more than thirty points. Because the figures are drawn from a single report covering a defined four-month window, they give an unusually clean snapshot of how the pandemic rebound was distributed across industries.

Which Industries Grew Fastest?

Industrials led the pandemic rebound, with billionaire wealth in the sector rising about 44 percent from April to July 2020. Technology followed on about 41 percent and health industries on about 36 percent, the three clear winners of the period. The lead of industrials, technology and health during the pandemic rebound was the clearest expression of a divergence between industries that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated rather than created. Industrials about 44.4 percent led the pandemic rebound from April to July 2020, ahead of technology on 41.1 percent and health industries on 36.3 percent, the three clear winners of the period. The scale of the gains in the leading sectors, more than forty percent for industrials and technology in a single four-month window, is without precedent in the UBS and PwC series of reports. The dominance of industrials, technology and health during the rebound reflected exactly the sectors that a locked-down, health-focused, digitising world turned to, and their billionaire owners were the direct beneficiaries. The pandemic winners were not chosen at random: they were the industries whose products and services became more essential, not less, when the world locked down, from cloud software to medical supplies.

The strength of technology and health reflected the sectors most in demand during the pandemic, from digital services to vaccines and therapies, a surge our biggest companies by value coverage frames through the companies involved.

Industrials leads: industrials billionaire wealth grew about 44 percent from April to July 2020, ahead of technology on 41 percent and health on 36 percent, with real estate slowest at 13 percent.

Investors bet heavily on technology and healthcare firms developing vaccines, therapies and digital tools, driving the fortunes of the billionaires who owned them sharply higher over just four months. The surge in technology and health billionaire wealth was driven by the same forces that lifted the shares of the companies these billionaires owned, as investors bet on the winners of a changed economy.

Which Industries Grew Slowest?

At the other end, real estate billionaire wealth grew only about 13 percent, the slowest of any industry, followed by other diversified and entertainment and media on about 13 and 21 percent. These sectors lagged the pandemic rebound. The industries that lagged the rebound were those most exposed to the disruption of the pandemic, from property to entertainment, whose fortunes recovered far more slowly than the digital winners. The industries that lagged were those whose business models depended on physical presence and movement, and whose recovery would depend on the eventual return to something like normal life.

The weakness of real estate reflected the uncertainty over property values during the pandemic, though billionaires kept faith in it as a store of value, a role our gold and other stores of value coverage frames.

A decade of divergence: from a common 2009 base, technology and health billionaire wealth grew far more than real estate or diversified sectors by 2020.

The gap between the fastest and slowest industries, more than thirty percentage points, shows how unevenly the pandemic rebound was spread, rewarding the sectors best placed for a locked-down, digital world. The more than thirty percentage point gap between the fastest and slowest industries over just four months is one of the clearest single measures of how unevenly the pandemic rebound was distributed.

How Much Did Total Billionaire Wealth Grow?

Total billionaire wealth reached a record 10.2 trillion dollars by the end of July 2020, up from about 8 trillion at the April low, a rise of about 27 percent in under four months. The previous peak had been 8.9 trillion at the end of 2017. The recovery in total billionaire wealth was among the most striking financial stories of the pandemic, turning a sharp March crash into a record high within four months even as the wider economy remained in recession. Total billionaire wealth reached about 10.2 trillion dollars by 31 July 2020, up from about 8 trillion at the April low, a rise of about 27 percent, surpassing the previous peak of 8.9 trillion at the end of 2017. The V-shaped recovery in billionaire wealth, from the March low to a July record, was one of the clearest signs of how completely the fortunes of the very wealthy had decoupled from the wider pandemic economy. The recovery in total billionaire wealth over these four months was so complete that it not only erased the March crash but carried fortunes to an all-time high, a rebound with few parallels in financial history. The record total reached at the end of July 2020 was all the more striking for having been reached so soon after the March low, a testament to the speed and scale of the market rebound. The gap between this record and the hardship faced by hundreds of millions of ordinary people during the same months made the figure one of the most discussed of the entire pandemic.

The V-shaped rebound in billionaire wealth tracked the sharp recovery in global stock markets after the March 2020 crash, a rebound our global stock markets by country coverage frames through the markets that drove it.

A V-shaped rebound: total billionaire wealth fell in the March 2020 crash then rebounded to a record 10.2 trillion dollars by the end of July, up about 27 percent from the April low.

The speed of the recovery was remarkable, with billionaire wealth not only recovering its pandemic losses but reaching a new all-time high within four months, even as the wider economy remained in deep recession. The contrast between record billionaire wealth and a wider economy in deep recession was one of the defining images of the pandemic, and it drove a sharp public debate about inequality.

Why Did Fortunes Diverge?

The pandemic accelerated a divergence that had been building since the financial crisis. Measured against a 2009 base, technology billionaire wealth had grown more than fivefold by 2020, and health industries almost as much, far ahead of the rest. The divergence between industries during the pandemic was not new but the acceleration of a trend that had been widening since the financial crisis, as technology and health pulled steadily ahead. Measured from a 2009 base of 100, the standardized growth index reached about 566 for technology and 548 for health by 2020, against 377 for industrials, 342 for real estate and 229 for other diversified sectors. The index tracks how far each industrys billionaire wealth has grown from its 2009 level, so a value of 566 means technology billionaire wealth was more than five and a half times its 2009 level by 2020. The long divergence between the digital winners and the slower industries, building since the financial crisis and accelerated by the pandemic, is the single most important trend in the decade of data. The gap between the digital winners and the traditional laggards, already wide before 2020, opened further during the pandemic as the sectors best suited to a changed world raced ahead of the rest. The decade-long divergence captured by the standardized index is one of the clearest illustrations of how the digital economy has reshaped the geography of great wealth, sector by sector. Understanding this divergence is central to understanding the whole period, since it explains why the pandemic enriched some billionaires enormously while barely moving the fortunes of others.

The long divergence between technology and health and the slower-growing industries reflects the rise of the digital economy, a shift our new technology wealth coverage frames through the newest sources of fortune.

The great divergence: measured from a 2009 base of 100, technology and health billionaire wealth pulled far ahead of the rest over the decade, a gap the pandemic widened.

The standardized growth index, tracking industry wealth from a 2009 base of 100, reached about 566 for technology and 548 for health by 2020, against about 342 for real estate and 229 for other diversified sectors, a widening gap. The widening gap between the standardized growth indices of technology and health on one side and real estate and diversified sectors on the other is the clearest measure of the long divergence between industries.

Which Industry Held the Most Wealth?

By July 2020, technology was among the largest industries by billionaire wealth, reflecting years of rapid growth. Together with finance, health and consumer sectors, it accounted for most of the record 10.2 trillion dollar total. By the middle of 2020, the concentration of billionaire wealth in technology and a few other leading sectors was more pronounced than ever, reinforced by the uneven pandemic rebound. The leading position of technology by wealth, built over years and reinforced by the pandemic, reflects the enormous individual fortunes concentrated in that single sector above all others.

The concentration of billionaire wealth in technology and finance reflects the industries that have created the largest fortunes, a pattern our US financial markets coverage frames through the depth of the markets behind them.

Technology leads: technology was among the largest industries by billionaire wealth in July 2020, together with finance, health and consumer sectors accounting for most of the record total.

The pandemic reinforced this concentration, lifting the technology and health share of billionaire wealth further as their fortunes grew fastest, while slower industries such as real estate saw their share slip.

Where Did Wealth Grow Fastest?

The pandemic rebound was uneven by geography as well as industry. Billionaire wealth grew fastest in Asia, led by mainland China, whose billionaire fortunes had grown more than elevenfold since 2009, far ahead of any other market. The geography of the pandemic rebound was as uneven as its industry pattern, with Asian and especially Chinese billionaire wealth growing far faster than that of any other region over the preceding decade. Chinese billionaire wealth grew more than 1,100 percent between 2009 and 2020, far ahead of France on more than 400 percent, while wealth in the United States roughly doubled over the same period. The geographic story of the decade was above all the rise of China, whose billionaire wealth grew at a pace that no other major market came close to matching. The concentration of the fastest gains in China and a handful of other markets reflected both the strength of Asian technology and the sheer pace at which new fortunes were being created there.

The rise of Chinese billionaire wealth was the standout geographic trend, a shift our billionaire population by region and billionaire share by region coverage follows through the longer rise of Asian wealth.

China races ahead: Chinese billionaire wealth grew more than 1,100 percent between 2009 and 2020, far ahead of France on more than 400 percent and the United States on about 100 percent.

China led with growth of more than 1,100 percent since 2009, followed by France on more than 400 percent, while wealth in the United States roughly doubled over the same period, a slower but still substantial rise. The scale of the Chinese lead, with billionaire wealth growing more than elevenfold in a decade, dwarfed the gains of every other market and marked the rise of Asia as a centre of great wealth.

How Did Billionaire Numbers Change?

The number of billionaires also rebounded. There were about 2,058 billionaires at the April 2020 low, rising to about 2,189 by the end of July, as the market recovery lifted many fortunes back above the billion dollar mark. The recovery in the number of billionaires, alongside the recovery in their wealth, showed how quickly the market rebound restored fortunes that the March crash had briefly wiped out. There were about 2,058 billionaires at the April 2020 low, rising to about 2,189 by the end of July, up from 2,158 in 2017, as the market recovery lifted fortunes back above the billion dollar mark. The swift recovery in the number of billionaires, back above its previous level within months, underlined how closely the fortunes of the very wealthy tracked the rebound in global stock markets.

The recovery in billionaire numbers, like the recovery in their wealth, tracked the rebound in stock markets, a link our billionaires around the world coverage frames through the longer growth of the billionaire population.

A fast recovery: the number of billionaires fell to about 2,058 at the April 2020 low then recovered to about 2,189 by the end of July, as markets rebounded.

The pandemic thus created and restored fortunes even as it devastated much of the wider economy, adding new billionaires in technology and health even as other sectors struggled. The pandemic thus created and restored fortunes even as it devastated much of the wider economy, a paradox that ran through the whole of the 2020 billionaire story.

How Has Billionaire Wealth Grown Long Term?

Over the longer run, billionaire wealth has grown enormously, from about 3.4 trillion dollars in 2009 to 10.2 trillion in July 2020, roughly tripling over a decade, driven above all by the rising value of technology companies. Seen over a decade, the pandemic surge was the latest and sharpest chapter in a long story of accumulating billionaire wealth, driven above all by the rising value of technology companies. Placed against the decade that preceded it, the pandemic surge looks less like an anomaly than the sharpest expression of a long trend of accumulating wealth at the very top of the global economy. The tripling of billionaire wealth over the decade to 2020 is a measure not only of rising asset prices but of the growth of the industries, above all technology, that create the largest fortunes.

The long rise in billionaire wealth reflects the growth of the industries that create great fortunes, a rise our wealth per adult by country and wealthiest women coverage frames through where the wealth sits.

Roughly tripled: total billionaire wealth rose from about 3.4 trillion dollars in 2009 to a record 10.2 trillion in July 2020, driven above all by technology.

The pandemic marked not a break in this long rise but an acceleration of it, pushing billionaire wealth to a new high and widening the gap between the fastest-growing industries and the rest. The pandemic marked an acceleration rather than a break in the long rise of billionaire wealth, pushing it to a new high and widening the gap between the leading industries and the rest.

How Concentrated Were the Gains?

The pandemic reinforced this concentration, lifting the technology and health share of billionaire wealth further as their fortunes grew fastest, while slower industries such as real estate saw their share slip.

Tech, health, industrials: the three winning industries of the pandemic together held a large share of billionaire wealth, a concentration the crisis reinforced.

Pandemic Billionaire Wealth in Numbers

A few figures capture the picture. Industrials billionaire wealth grew about 44 percent from April to July 2020, technology about 41 percent and health about 36 percent, while total billionaire wealth reached a record 10.2 trillion dollars. These figures together capture a pandemic that, far from denting great wealth, drove it to a record high, concentrated in the industries of the digital economy. Taken together, the numbers describe a pandemic that drove billionaire wealth to a record high, concentrated overwhelmingly in the technology, health and industrial sectors of the digital economy. Read together, the figures tell the story of a crisis that widened the gap between the wealthy and everyone else, driving billionaire fortunes to a record even as the wider world struggled. They stand as a historical record of a singular moment, when a global health crisis coincided with a record surge in the wealth of the worlds billionaires.

These figures matter because the pandemic reshaped the industries of great wealth, accelerating the rise of technology and health, a shift our top billionaire countries coverage sets in geographic context.

Together they describe a pandemic that, far from denting billionaire wealth, drove it to record highs, concentrated in the technology, health and industrial sectors best placed for a changed world. For the historical record, the pandemic of 2020 stands as a moment when billionaire wealth reached a new high even amid crisis, led by the technology, health and industrial sectors.

Pandemic Billionaire Wealth: The Big Picture

Taken together, the development of billionaire wealth from April to July 2020 shows a pandemic that rewarded technology, health and industrials above all, a divergence that reshaped the industries of great wealth.

Whether the pandemic-era divergence between industries proves lasting will shape the wealth rankings for years, but in 2020 it drove billionaire wealth to a record high, led by the industries of the digital economy.

Frequently Asked Questions: Pandemic Billionaire Wealth