Billionaire wealth grew three times faster than the past five-year average, according to an Oxfam report.
The Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power report was published as the World Economic Forum opens in Davos, and found that billionaire wealth grew nearly 81% since 2020.
In 2025 alone, it grew 16% to US$18.3 trillion (A$27.29 trillion).
In a media release, Oxfam said that the surge in billionaire wealth coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump pursuing a pro-billionaire agenda through slashing taxes for the ultra-rich, which undermined global efforts to tax large corporations, reversed attempts to address monopoly power and contributed to the growth of AI-related stocks that have provided a boon to super-rich investors worldwide.
The report found that the collective wealth of billionaires surged by US$2.5 trillion, most equivalent to the total wealth held by the bottom half of humanity – 4.1 billion people.
This rise in wealth would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.
For the first time ever, the number of billionaires surpassed 3,000, with the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, being the first to surpass half a trillion dollars.
The 48 billionaires in Australia had more than the bottom 40% of the Australian population combined and saw their collective wealth grow A$10.5 billion in 2025.
Oxfam also found political implications, with billionaires being 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.
“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable,” Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar said.
A World Values Survey of 66 countries also found that almost half of all people polled said the rich often buy elections in their countries.
“Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite and defend wealth while repressing people’s rights and anger at how so many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable,” Behar said.
In the report, Oxfam also found that billionaires currently have a monopoly over the media, as they own more than half the world’s largest media companies and all the main social media companies.
In the UK alone, three-quarters of newspaper circulation is controlled by four super-rich families.
The report cites evidence that only 27% of top editors globally are female, and just 23% belong to radicalised groups, respectively.
This report was released just before world leaders met in Davos to discuss concerns over inequality, geopolitical tension and shifting global order.
Oxfam is calling upon world leaders to effectively tax the super-rich, create stronger firewalls between wealth and politics and ensure accountability for the political empowerment of ordinary citizens
