Top of the Upper Class: 155 New Billionaires Minted in 2014

The survey also finds that on average it takes 45 years to become a billionaire with 93% of the world’s billionaires older than that age.

Now here’s the kicker: 55% of the billionaires are self-made; 26% inherited some of their money and then worked to double or triple it, and only 19% simply inherited their enormous wealth.

65% of the billionaires had college degrees, compared with 35% who didn’t graduate from college.

About 90% of male billionaires are married, 6% are divorced, 3% are single, and 2% are widowed.

Of female billionaires, 65% are married, 10% are divorced, 4% are single, and 21% widowed.

The top five industries for minting these fat cats are finance and banking, industrial conglomerates, real estate, manufacturing and textiles, and apparel and luxury goods.

The survey also says billionaires hold $600 million of their net worth in cash. Check out or download the fascinating Wealth-X report here.

Wealth-X is a leading ultra-high net worth intelligence and prospecting firm with the largest collection of curated research on UHNW individuals, defined as those with net assets of US$30 million and above.