Gates world's richest person, 29 Turks constitute $46.1B on Forbes list

It was a record year for the richest people on earth, as the number of billionaires jumped 13 percent to 2,043 from 1,810 last year, the first time ever that Forbes has pinned down more than 2,000 10-figure-fortunes.

Turkish businessman Murat Ülker stands as the 501st richest person in the world according to the data released by Forbes magazine on Monday.

Ülker, who chairs one of the world's largest food companies under the Ülker brand, was announced to have a net worth of $3.7 billion. Hüsnü Özyeğin, chairman of FIBA Holding, which mainly focused on the finance sector with various other ventures, followed Ülker with a net worth of $3 billion.

Semahat Sevim Arsel, a member of the Koç family that controls the country's largest conglomerate, ranked third amongst Turks with a net worth of $2.4 billion.

To no surprise, Bill Gates took the number one spot for the fourth year in a row with a fortune of $86 billion, up from $75 billion last year. Gates has been the richest person in the world for 18 out of the past 23 years.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos had the best year of any person on the planet, adding $27.6 billion to his fortune; now worth $72.8 billion, he moved into the top three in the world for the first time, up from number five a year ago.

Warren Buffett had the second-best year, and the biggest gain since Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016. His $14.8 billion jump in 12 months was enough for him to grab back the number two spot from Amancio Ortega, founder of Spanish clothing chain Zara.

Ortega's fortune was up $4.3 billion since last year, but he still fell to fourth in the world, unable to keep up with the outsize gains of others.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg moved up to number five for the first time, after his fortune increased $11.4 billion in 12 months.

Meanwhile Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico fell to number six, marking the first time he's been out of the top five in a dozen years.

There were 195 newcomers.

Mainland China had the most new 10-figure fortunes with 76. The U.S. was second with 25. Notable newbies include Patagonia sportswear founder Yvon Chouinard; Viking Cruises founder Torstein Hagen of Norway; U.S. hedge fund tycoon Cliff Asness and two of his partners; and John and Patrick Collison, Irish citizens who co-founded San Francisco-based Stripe, which enables online payments.

John Collison, age 26, is now the world's youngest self-made billionaire, just two months younger than Snapchat's Evan Spiegel. The Collisons are two of just four self-made billionaires in their 20s (the other two are the Snapchat cofounders).

There are 56 billionaires under the age of 40, down from 66 last year, after some aged out and others dropped below the $1 billion mark. New Australian billionaire Manny Stul may not be a familiar name yet, but his popular Shopkins, grocery-inspired plastic collectibles with names like Kris P. Lettuce and Posh Pear, have been a huge hit with American kids. There are also 15 new self-made women billionaires, all but one of whom are from Asia Pacific.

That includes 10 from China and the first ever from Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, who took her budget airline, VietJet Air, public in February 2017. The sole American self-made woman newcomer is Thai Lee, who was born in Thailand but moved to the U.S. as a child and now runs tech reseller SHI, reportedly the nation's largest woman-owned business by sales.

Altogether there are 227 women on list, including 10 who cofounded or own businesses with a spouse or a brother and thus share the fortune.

The U.S. continues to have more billionaires than any other nation, with a record 565, up from 540 a year ago. China is catching up with 319. (Hong Kong has another 67, and Macau 1.) Germany has the third most with 114 and India is fourth, with 101, marking the the first time it has had more than 100 on the list. Seventy-eight people fell off the list, including 33 from China, seven Americans and nine who are still super wealthy but share their wealth among extended family members and therefore are not eligible for these ranks. Additionally, 20 billionaires died in the past year, including Enterprise car rental founder Jack Taylor and Michael Ilitch, who launched Little Caesar's pizza with his wife, Marian.

HERE ARE THE RICHEST TURKS ON THE FORBES' LIST

501-Murat Ülker $3.7B

660-Husnu Özyeğin $3B

867-Semahat Sevim Arsel $2.4B

867-Şarık Tara $2.4B

896-Erman Ilıcak $2.3B

939-Mustafa Rahmi Koç $2.2B

973-Ferit Faik Şahenk $2.1B

1030-Suna Kıraç $2B

1098-Mustafa Küçük $1.9B

1098-Filiz Şahenk $1.9B

1234-Hamdi Ulukaya $1.7B

1290-Sezai Bacaksız $1.6B

1290-Turgay Ciner $1.6B

1290-Mehmet Nazif Günal $1.6B

1290-Nihat Özdemir $1.6 B

1376-Bülent Eczacıbaşı $1.5B

1376-Faruk Eczacıbaşı $1.5B

1468-Ahmet Çalık $1.4 B

1567-Ahmet Nazif Zorlu $1.3B

1678-Mehmet Aydınlar $1.2B

1678-Şefik Yılmaz Dizdar $1.2B

1678-Mehmet Sinan Tara $1.2B

1795-Mehmet Rüştü Başaran $1.1B

1795-Deniz Şahenk $1.1B

1940-Ali İbrahim Ağaoğlu $1B

1940-Hamdi Akın $1B

1940-Mustafa Latif Topbaş $1B

1940-Murat Vargı $1B