Every number on BillionaireList is an estimate with a date and a source. This page explains where those estimates come from, how we choose which one to show, how the ranking is built and where the limits of the method are. If you use our figures in your own work, this is the page to read first.
What a net worth estimate is
Net worth is the value of everything a person owns minus what they owe. For most billionaires the largest part is a stake in one or more companies. Some of those companies trade on a stock exchange, so a stake has a visible market price. Others are private, so their value has to be inferred from deals, funding rounds, comparable companies and reported results. On top of that come property, art, cash, other investments and debts, which are rarely disclosed in full.
Because of this, no one outside a person's own advisers knows an exact figure. Every published net worth is an estimate made by someone, at a point in time, using the information available then. We treat it that way. We do not present any figure as a fact about a person's bank balance.
Where our figures come from
We compile published, dated net worth estimates and the facts behind them from public sources. We use four kinds.
- Published rankings. Annual and real-time rankings of the world's richest people publish a net worth for each person with a date. We record the figure, the date and a link to where it was published. We do not copy their text.
- Company filings and reports. Annual reports, ownership disclosures and regulatory filings show who holds how much of a listed company and when that holding changed.
- Press reports. Reporting on deals, share sales, listings, funding rounds and court cases often adds facts that change the picture of a fortune.
- Open public knowledge bases. Identity facts such as full name, date of birth, citizenship and company roles come from open public knowledge bases and are checked against the other sources.
Our sources page describes each kind in more detail and shows how a source line reads.
Every figure has a date and a source
Each estimate is stored with the date it refers to and a link to the source it came from. On the site the date and source appear next to the number, on the ranking row and on the profile. In exports and in the API they are separate fields, so you never have to guess how old a figure is.
When we have no dated public estimate for a person, the profile says "Not estimated" instead of showing a number. We do not fill gaps with guesses.
Who makes the ranking
The ranking only includes living people whose latest public estimate is from an established publisher (a published wealth ranking such as Forbes, Bloomberg or Hurun, a company filing or major press) and dated within the current ranking window, which starts on 1 September 2026. A person with only older estimates is not ranked, because placing a figure from several years ago next to a figure from last week would give a misleading order.
Older estimates are not deleted. They stay on the profile with their dates, as part of the history of that fortune. When a newer estimate is published, the person enters or re-enters the ranking automatically.
Figures from personal websites, aggregator sites, free hosting pages and other unverified sources are not stored at all, so they can never reach the ranking. Anyone under 18 is ranked only on a figure from Forbes, Bloomberg or Hurun.
People who have died are removed from the ranking. Their profile stays online as a record, marked accordingly.
How change figures work
A change figure compares the latest estimate for a person with the previous one. Both dates are shown, so you can see whether the change covers one day, one month or longer. A large change between two estimates far apart in time means something different from the same change overnight, and we want that difference to be visible.
Change figures are shown in US dollars and as a percentage of the previous estimate.
What self-made means here
We mark a person as self-made when they built the fortune themselves rather than inheriting it. Someone who founded a company and grew it qualifies. Someone whose wealth comes mainly from a family business or an inheritance does not, even if they later grew it. Some cases are mixed, for example a founder who started with significant family capital. In those cases we follow what the public record shows about the origin of the main asset and explain it on the profile.
How descriptions are written
The text on each profile is written by our editors from scratch, using the public facts and sources stored for that person. We do not copy biographies from other sites. Sources used for a description are listed under the profile. Profiles are published for search only once the description meets our content checks for length, sources and dates.
How often the data is updated
The ranking is rebuilt every day from the latest stored estimates. The public record behind each profile, including identity facts, company roles and new published estimates, is re-checked every week. The "Updated" stamp on the site shows when the ranking was last rebuilt.
Corrections
Anyone can request a correction from a profile. A correction needs an evidence link, such as a filing, a company statement or a published report. We review the evidence and change the record only when it supports the change. The corrections page explains the full process.
Limits of any estimate
We prefer to be clear about what estimates can and cannot do.
- Private companies are hard to value. When most of a fortune sits in a private company, any figure depends on assumptions about that company's value. Two careful estimates can differ a lot.
- Publishers differ. Different rankings use different methods, treat debt and family holdings differently and update on different days. The same person can have noticeably different figures from different publishers on the same day.
- Dates differ between people. The ranking orders people by their latest estimate, but those estimates do not all share one date. Two people close in the ranking may have figures from different weeks. Check the date column when the order matters to you.
- Hidden assets and debts. Personal debt, pledged shares, trusts and family arrangements are often undisclosed. Estimates can miss them.
- Currency moves. We show figures in US dollars. For people whose assets are in other currencies, exchange rate moves change the dollar figure even when nothing else changes.
These limits apply to every ranking of this kind. Our answer is to show the date and source of every figure, keep the history and make it easy to check our work.