Two Hungarians among the world’s wealthiest people, can you guess who?
As it is tradition, Forbes magazine has compiled the list of the world’s billionaires, for the 36th time, in 2022. Unexpectedly, not only did the number of billionaires decrease, but their combined wealth has also dropped significantly.
According to Forbes, compared to last year, there are 87 fewer billionaires on the 2022 list, a total of 2,668. This is mainly due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, which has led to 34 fewer billionaires, and the Chinese government’s crackdown on tech companies, which has caused a whopping 87 billionaires to fall off the list.
Interestingly, there are also 236 newcomers on this year’s list, and some of them are from countries that have not been previously featured on Forbes’s world’s richest list, including Uruguay, Estonia, and Bulgaria, to name a few.
It might not be that surprising, but the list is led by the United States, with a total of 735 billionaires on the 2022 list, amounting to a collective wealth of about $4.7 trillion.
This year is also the first where Elon Musk is the world’s wealthiest man, with a net worth of $219 billion.
Here are the top five wealthiest people in 2022, along with their net worth:
- Elon Musk – USA – $219 billion
- Jeff Bezos – USA – $171 billion
- Bernard Arnault & family – France – $158 billion
- Bill Gates – USA – $129 billion
- Warren Buffet – USA – $118 billion
Despite the financial losses of some of Hungary’s wealthiest people, two Hungarians still managed to make it onto Forbes’s list of the richest people on Earth.
The two richest Hungarians on the list are Sándor Csányi as the world’s 2,190th richest person, with a net worth of $1.3 billion, while Lőrinc Mészáros stands in the 2,324th place, with a net worth of $1.2 billion.
Sándor Csányi
Sándor Csányi is a Hungarian billionaire, businessman, and banker. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of OTP Bank Group, one of the largest financial groups in the CEE region and the largest bank in Hungary.
He is a shareholder and board member of the Hungarian-based multinational oil and gas company, MOL Group, and he was also Hungary’s first billionaire.
Lőrinc Mészáros
Lőrinc Mészáros started his career as a gas fitter, and from near bankruptcy in 2007, he had managed to become the wealthiest Hungarian within a few years. He was also a politician and managed to be the mayor of Felcsút between 2011 and 2018, but now, he is focusing on his ‘economic interests’.
Interestingly, Portfolio reports that, compared to last year when the Hungarian list was led by Lőrinc Mészáros, his wealth has dropped a significant 300 million dollars, meaning he fell behind a total of 289 positions on the world’s richest list.
Meanwhile, the net worth of Sándor Csányi had grown by a 100 million dollars, dethroning Lőrinc Mészáros as the wealthiest Hungarian and advancing his position among the world’s billionaires by 188 positions.
Read alsoHow do the richest Hungarians help Ukrainian refugees?
Source: Forbes.com, Portfolio.hu, Blikk.hu
Great !!!! Wish the number was larger.
If someone hacks into the Orbán family accounts (including all the offshore ones), then we will see who are the wealthiest people in Hungary. The son in law is worthy of special attention and scrutiny. Before Orbán hit the scene, they were an average middle to lower middle class rural family, not super rich.