The Surprising Truth About How Many Billionaires Exist—and What It Says About Wealth Today

The Wall Street Journal also highlighted a few other names, including ABC Supply’s co-founder, Diane Hendricks.

The net worth of these billionaires was roughly $5.7 trillion in September 2025. About $3.86 trillion of that belonged to the top 100. Collectively, three billionaires—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg—have over $1 trillion in wealth. Compared to the median household net worth of $192,900, their combined net worth is the equivalent of about 5.2 million U.S. households.

Holding so much wealth allows these individuals to influence markets and politics through different avenues, including campaign contributions, lobbying, media ownership, investments, and corporate control.

Billionaire Hotspots

Billionaires are spread out all over the United States. According to data from Altrata, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, they own more than 3,000 homes and properties across the country. Businesses owned by billionaires were operated in every state except for Wyoming and Alaska.

California had the highest concentration of billionaires, with 255 in the state, which is home to many of the world’s high-growth tech companies as well as the founders of some of the largest tech companies, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Larry Page. California’s gross domestic product (GDP) is the largest in the U.S., giving billionaires a way to build their wealth through investment and innovation.

New Money vs. Old Money

New wealth creation for billionaires is largely driven by banking, finance, and technology, especially in the United States. These two industries reported 300 and 110 billionaires, respectively. Another 75 billionaires came from the real estate sector.

Inherited money continues to play a big role in billionaire wealth, too. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the richest American families also made the list of billionaires. One-third of billionaires earned their riches from generational wealth. Major names like the Waltons, associated with Walmart, and the Pritzkers, associated with Hyatt, were on the list of U.S. billionaires. It also included one member of the Rockefeller family.

How the Ultra-Wealthy Give Back

Despite their wealth, a sizable percentage of billionaires—about 1 in 4 (25%)—have donated less than $1 million to charitable causes since 2015.

According to Forbes, the most generous billionaires include:

• Warren Buffett, who has donated $62 billion over his lifetime, plus $5.3 billion in Berkshire Hathaway Stock in June 2024, to several organizations, including the Gates Foundation
• Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, whose lifetime donation total is $47.7 billion, plus $5.2 billion in 2024. Bill Gates also announced he would give away almost all of his wealth over 20 years, as of 2025
• Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable focus has been on climate change, health, and education, with a lifetime total of $21.1 billion and $3.7 billion in 2024
• Mackenzie Scott, who has donated $19.25 billion over her lifetime, and over $2 billion in 2024, focusing on education, housing, and economic equality
• Marilyn Simons and family, who have donated $9.4 billion, plus $3.4 billion in 2024

The Bottom Line

Although the number of billionaires keeps rising, they represent a small portion of the U.S. population—roughly 0.00034%. This small percentage holds a great deal of wealth. They live across the United States, from New York City to Waunakee, Wisconsin.