The 5 Richest Women In The World

Women occupy a small but growing slice of Forbes’ World Billionaires list. This year 369 out of 2,781 billionaires or 13.3% are women, up from 337 in 2023, when women accounted for 12.8% of the list. Together they are worth nearly $1.8 trillion, about $240 billion more than last year.

The world’s richest woman for the fourth consecutive year is L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers. Her fortune jumped $19 billion in the past 12 months, putting her net worth at $99.5 billion, the biggest gain of any woman on the 2024 list, but just short for her to become the first woman to crack the swelling ranks of the $100 billion club.

The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024. Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication. We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children in certain cases, namely if that person is the founder of the fortune. For Russian billionaires, fortunes were calculated using ownership structures from February 2022, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and before many made transfers of assets to managers, friends and others in an effort to protect their holdings from sanctions. We value a variety of assets, including private companies, real estate, art and more. We don’t pretend to know each billionaire’s private balance sheet (though some provide it). When documentation isn’t supplied or available, we discount fortunes. For daily updates of net worths, go to forbes.com/real-time-billionaires.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/samantha...

Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?s...

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership...

Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter:   / forbes  
Forbes Video on Instagram:   / forbes  
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.