New data indicates that billionaires' wealth in 2025 grew three times faster than in the previous five years, reaching its highest level in history, prompting warnings of dangerous political inequality, UNN reports, citing The Independent.
Details
Data released by Oxfam shows that the world's billionaires' wealth reached its highest level in history — $18.3 trillion.
Billionaires' wealth in 2025 grew by more than 16%, three times faster than the average over the previous five years.
A new Oxfam report warns that extreme wealth is increasingly linked to political power, estimating that billionaires are approximately 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens.
The total number of billionaires in the world reached 3,000 for the first time, while one in four people globally regularly lack sufficient food, and nearly half of the world's population lives in poverty, the report states.
The combined global wealth of billionaires is estimated to have grown by $2.5 trillion last year, which would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.
These figures highlight a "dangerous trend," the report says.
"As extreme wealth rapidly grows, political rights and civil liberties worldwide are shrinking. Tens of millions of people, feeling trapped in poverty and powerless to influence the system, take to the streets but face authoritarian measures," the report notes.
Oxfam argues that "political leaders now face a stark and urgent choice: prioritize the wealthy few or protect the rights and freedoms of the many."
"Political leaders need to listen and respond accordingly: stop protecting the wealth and power of the few, at the expense of the opportunities and rights of the rest of the population. Remember who you are supposed to represent and serve," the report's authors emphasized.