Forbes List 2021: Meet The 10 Richest Women In The World
If you've read our articles on the Forbes' World's Billionaires List 2021 highlighting the richest Asians in the world as well as the youngest billionaires, you'll notice one thing: they're all men. But that doesn't mean that women don't have fortunes worth a billion.
This year's richest list features 328 women, which is up from 241 last year. Women as a whole are worth US$1.53 trillion which is nearly a 60 per cent increase over the past year, adding US$570.7 billion to their wealth.
While the 31-year-old Bumble co-founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, didn't make it to the top 10 of the overall richest women list, she became the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire when she took the matchmaking app public. Curious to know who else made it to the list? Read on to find out the richest women in the world in 2021.
1/10 Françoise Bettencourt Meyers
Bettencourt Meyers is the daughter of Liliane Bettencourt and Eugene Schueller, the latter founded the cosmetics brand, L'Oréal. She inherited her wealth from her late mother.
While the cosmetic giant's profits fell six per cent in 2020 due to the pandemic, the stock still rose to 38 per cent a year after. The French billionaire has served on the board of L’Oréal since 1997. She donated US$266 million to repair Notre Dame in Paris after a fire severely damaged it.
Age: 67
Location: France
Net worth: US$73.6 billion
Industry: Beauty
2/10 Alice Walton
Walton was previously the world's richest woman and while she lost the top spot to Bettencourt Meyers, Walton still gained US$7.4 billion last year. Walton is the daughter of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart and the heir to its fortune.
During the pandemic, the company's stock rose more than five per cent since mid-March 2020. They then launched free delivery as part of an Amazon Prime-like membership program. This helped boost online sales such as much as 69 per cent.
Age: 71
Location: USA
Net worth: US$61.8 billion
Industry: Retail
3/10 MacKenzie Scott
Scott's high-profile divorce with Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, was the most expensive in the world until the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce happened.
Scott gave away US$5.8 billion in grants to more than 500 non-profit organisations across the U.S. which supports various causes from racial equity, public health and LGBTQ+ rights—this makes her the biggest philanthropist of the pandemic.
Age: 50
Location: USA
Net worth: US$53 billion
Industry: E-commerce
4/10 Julia Koch
American socialite and philanthropist Julia Koch is the widow of David Koch, whom she inherited her fortune from when he died in 2019. Koch and her children currently have a 42 per cent stake in the family business, Koch Industries, America's largest private company per revenue last year. Koch serves on the board of directors of the billion-dollar conglomerate while David's older brother, Charles serves as chairman.
Age: 58
Location: USA
Net worth: US$46.4 billion
Industry: Chemicals
5/10 Miriam Adelson
Israeli-American physician Miriam Adelson is the wife of late business magnate, Sheldon Adelson, the founder and previous chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Adelson inherited the fortune owned by her husband after he died and now controls the 56 per cent stake in the casino operator.
Although Adelson is still one of the richest women in the world, the company lost US$985 million in the second quarter of 2020 as the casinos and resorts had to shut down due to lockdowns. It reopened in June 2020 but still reported a US$1.69 billion in net loss which is a far cry from its US$2.7 billion profit the previous year.
Age: 75
Location: USA
Net worth: US$38.2 billion
Industry: Casinos
6/10 Jacqueline Mars
American heiress Jacqueline Mars and her brother John each own about one-third of Mars Incorporated. The US$40 billion-dollar candy, pet care and food company is known for M&M's and Skittles, which was founded by the Mars sibling's grandfather, Frank C. Mars in 1911.
Age: 81
Location: USA
Net worth: US$31.3 billion
Industry: Food
7/10 Yang Huiyan
Yang Huiyan is the only one from Asia and the youngest billionaire to make it to this list. She owns about 58 per cent of China-based real estate company, Country Garden Holdings. Since 2007, her father and the company founder Yeung Kwok Keung, has been transferring her equity into the business which added much to her wealth.
Yang also chairs Bright Scholar Education Holdings, a Chinese education company that went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007.
Age: 39
Location: China
Net worth: US$29.6 billion
Industry: Real estate
8/10 Susanne Klatten
German billionaire heiress, Susanne Klatten is the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt, the former being a German industrialist who is known for saving luxury vehicles company, BMW from the point of bankruptcy. Thanks to BMW's recovery from a slump earlier in the pandemic, US$10.9 billion was added to Klatten's fortune. The company also reported nearly US$119 billion in revenues in 2020 while its stock price increased more than 93 per cent since Mid-March 2020.
The BMW heiress inherited a 12.50 per cent stake following her father's death which now totals to 19.2 per cent after her mother's passing in 2015. Besides her wealth from the German carmaker, she also inherited her late father's 50.1 per cent stake in pharmaceutical and chemicals manufacturer, Atlanta.
Age: 58
Location: Germany
Net worth: US$27.7 billion
Industry: Automobile, pharmaceuticals
9/10 Gina Rinehart
Australian mining magnate and heiress, Gina Rinehart is also Australia's richest person. She currently serves as the executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately owned mining and agricultural company that her father, Lang Hancock founded. The company was affected during the pandemic but have since been recovering which helped boost Rinehart's estimated 77 per cent stake in the company.
Age: 67
Location: Australia
Net worth: US$23.6 billion
Industry: Mining
10/10 Iris Fontbona
After falling out of the list in 2020, Chilean billionaire Iris Fontbona is rejoining the list of top 10 richest women this year. Fontbana is the widow of Andrónico Luksic, who served as the chairman of Quiñenco, a holding of Luksic Group, one of Chile's largest conglomerates. Fontbana also owns a majority stake in Quiñenco.
Other than that, she and her children control Chilean mining company, Antofagasta which reported a US$5.1 billion in sales in 2020.
Age: 78
Location: Chile
Networth: US$23.3 billion
Industry: Mining