The World’s Richest Person Every Year Since 1987

Key Takeaways

• Bill Gates held the title of world’s richest person in 18 of the 40 Forbes lists since 1987, including 13 consecutive years.
• Yoshiaki Tsutsumi ranked first in six of the first eight annual lists, reflecting the scale of Japan’s real estate fortunes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• Elon Musk’s 2026 fortune reached levels far beyond earlier inflation-adjusted records, with Forbes estimating his wealth at $923 billion in September.

Over the last 40 years, the title of world’s richest person has shifted from Japanese real estate tycoons to U.S. tech billionaires.

The data for this visualization comes from Forbes’ World’s Billionaires lists. Historical net worth estimates have been adjusted for inflation using U.S. CPI data, while the 2026 figure uses a real-time Forbes estimate from September 2026.

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