Map of the Spread of Billionaires Around the World

Map by Visualizing Economics

In the past billionaires were stereotyped as White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. Today though things are different. The globalized economy has allowed wealth creation to spread worldwide. While there is a clear spatial clustering in the United States and Western Europe, the new economies of Russia, Latin America, the Middle East, India, and the Far East have been producing a growing number of billionaires.

The above map shows how new money billionaires dominate the billionaire club and that these people are no longer solely from the selective breeding pool of WASP society. Instead, globalization, open markets, and the computers have allowed the kid next door to climb their way up and become super rich.

The new market, international billionaire stereotype has now entered popular culture. Mexican beer company Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (which is owned by the Dutch beer company Heineken International) runs advertisements featuring a Latin American billionaire dubbed "The Most Interesting Man in the World."



Meanwhile, the American DirecTv has a commercial with an actor playing a Russian billionaire who has it all