Tax the world’s super-rich already

Global billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion in 2024, equivalent to roughly $5.7 billion a day. The rate of growth is three times faster than the year before.

The world is now on track to see five trillionaires within a decade, the latest annual Oxfam inequality report reveals. 

Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, the number of people still living in poverty – around 3.5 billion – has barely changed since 1990. 

Wealth

It warns that progress on poverty reduction has slowed to a standstill and that extreme poverty could be ended three times faster if inequality were to be reduced. 

Oxfam’s report, Takers Not Makers calls for bold solutions to radically reduce inequality and hardwire fairness into our economies. It was published as business elites gathered in the Swiss resort of Davos and Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States. 

This ever-growing concentration of wealth is enabled by a monopolistic concentration of power, with billionaires increasingly exerting influence over industries and public opinion.  

In 2024, the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, up from 2,565 in 2023. Their combined wealth surged from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in just 12 months. This is the second-largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since records began. 

The wealth of the world’s ten richest men grew on average by almost $100 million a day and even if they lost 99 per cent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires. 

Super-rich

UK billionaires saw their collective wealth increase last year by £35 million ($44m) a day to £182 billion ($231bn) – enough to cover the city of Manchester in £10 notes almost 1.5 times over. Four new billionaires were created last year, taking the current total to 57.  

Anna Marriott, Oxfam inequality policy lead said: “Last year we predicted the first trillionaire could emerge within a decade, but this shocking acceleration of wealth means that the world is now on course for at least five. 

“The global economic system is broken, wholly unfit for purpose as it enables and perpetuates this explosion of riches, while nearly half of humanity continues to live in poverty.

“The UK Government should be prioritising economic policies that bring down inequality and crucially, start supporting higher taxation on the super-rich. Huge sums of money could be raised, to tackle inequality here in the UK and overseas and provide crucial investment for our public services.”

She added: “For the first time, with the groundbreaking G20 agreement to cooperate on taxing the world’s super-rich, there is genuine momentum to implement fairer taxation globally. The UK should champion this opportunity to help build more equal societies at home and abroad.”  

Colonialism

The report examines unmerited wealth and colonialism, understood as not only a history of brutal wealth extraction but also a powerful force behind today’s extreme levels of inequality. It shines a light on how, contrary to popular perception, billionaire wealth is largely unearned.