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Annie Thériault in Peru | annie.theriault@oxfam.org | +51 936 307 990

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Notes to editors:

Download Oxfam’s report Takers not Makers and the methodology note.

According to the World Bank, the actual number of people living on less than $6.85 a day has barely changed since 1990.

Billionaire data is based on Oxfam's analysis of Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire List as of the end of November 2024 and is adjusted to inflation to 2024 prices.

Forbes data indicates that the largest annual increase in billionaire wealth ($5.8 trillion) occurred in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was driven largely by governments injecting trillions of dollars into the economy. 

Oxfam calculates that 60 percent of billionaire wealth is either from crony or monopolistic sources or inherited. Specifically, 36 percent is inherited, 18 percent comes from monopoly power, and 6 percent is from crony connections. 

Research by Forbes found that, for the first time since 2009, every billionaire under 30 inherited their wealth —“a sign that the ‘great wealth transfer’ has begun.” 

According to UBS, more than 1,000 billionaires are expected to pass $5.2 trillion to their heirs over the next 20 to 30 years.

Vincent Bolloré bought several former colonial companies in Africa, taking advantage of the wave of privatizations spurred by the structural adjustment programs imposed by the IMF and the World Bank in the 1990s. This strategy enabled Bolloré to build an extensive transport-logistics network in Africa, operating in 42 ports across the continent. . 

Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou’s research shows that the average Belgian has about 180 times more voting power in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the largest arm of the World Bank, when compared to the average Ethiopian.

On average, low- and middle-income countries are spending 48 percent of their national budgets on debt repayments

In 2023, the average life expectancy in Africa is 63.8 years, compared to 79.1 years in Europe.

Jason Hickel, Morena Hanbury Lemos and Felix Barbour found that “Southern wages are 87 percent to 95 percent lower than Northern wages for work of equal skill. While Southern workers contribute 90 percent of the labor that powers the world economy, they receive only 21 percent of global income.”

According to the ILO, women in the informal economy are more often found in the most vulnerable situations, for instance as domestic workers, home-based workers or contributing family workers, than their male counterparts.

ILO data also shows that migrant workers in high-income countries earn about 12.6 percent less than nationals, on average. The pay gap between men nationals and migrant women in high-income countries is estimated at 20.9 percent, which is much wider than the aggregate gender pay gap in high-income countries (16.2 percent).