Forbes billionaire listing for Icelander

Icelandic businessman and entrepreneur Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson has re-entered the Forbes Billionaire List after a five-year absence. In the 2015 list, he ranks 1,415^th with an estimated fortune of $1.3 billion (approx. ISK 173 billion).

Only Icelander on the list

Björgólfsson is the only Icelander on the list. Bill Gates has for many years ruled the roost, taking top position sixteen years out of the last 21. He has added $3.2 billion (approx. ISK 428 billion) to his fortune since last year, taking his total to $79.2 billion (approx. ISK 10.6 trillion).

More billionaires than ever 

According to Forbes, more billionaires than ever have been identified this year. The list contains 1,826 names, with a combined fortune of $7 trillion. There are 290 new entries and 71 billionaires from China alone. A record number of those qualifying for the Forbes Billionaire List are under forty – a total of 46. The youngest is the 24-year-old Evan Spiegel, founder of Snapchat.

Facebook’s Mark Zucker­berg has climbed five places from last year and broken into the Top 20 for the first time. He is now the world’s sixteenth richest billionaire. 138 individuals have fallen off the list since last year, including Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine.

Björgólfsson released a book last year relating how he became a billionaire, lost everything and then rebuilt his empire.