Who Was The Richest Person In The World Every Year From The 1980s To The Present?

The world has changed ENORMOUSLY since the 1980s. Smartphones, the internet, electric cars, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tesla… Sure, cell phones existed 30+ years ago, but they were more likely to weigh five pounds and certainly did not fit in the back pocket of your jeans. Laptops were in their infancy and did not yet have hard drives. Streaming movies and entertainment did not exist. Mark Zuckerberg was three years old in 1987. Jeff Bezos was a recent graduate of Princeton University. Elon Musk was a 15-year-old schoolboy in South Africa who, when he wasn't being bullied, was programming computer games as a hobby.

The richest person in the world back in 1987 wasn't Bill Gates, although that was the year the Microsoft co-founder became a billionaire for the first time. In 1987, Gates had a net worth of $1.25 billion. Today Bill Gates' net worth is $145 billion, and that makes him only the FIFTH richest person in the world!

There have been literal revolutions in technology, fashion, music, politics, and culture since 1987. There hasn't, however, been a ton of change in who is the richest person in the world. Since 1985, there have been just eight men who have been, at one point or another, the richest person in the world. Eight. You'll know some of the seven names: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc. But who are the others who, at one point in the last three+ decades, wore the crown… if only briefly?

Richest Person In The World, From 1985 to 2024

1985 – 1990: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

$20 billion (1987)

$18.9 billion (1988)

$15 billion (1989)

$16 billion (1990)

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi took over the company his father, Yasujiro Tsutsumi, founded and expanded it into real estate, railways, hotels, and resorts. At one point, Yoshiaki's Seibu Corporation owned 1/6 of the land in Japan. At its height, Yoshiaki's Seibu Railway Group owned a transport network, a baseball team, more than 80 hotels, 52 golf courses, and dozens of ski resorts in Japan and across the globe. In many cities in Japan, it was quite possible to board a Seibu train to a Seibu shopping center, hotel, or resort without ever setting foot on another company's property. The media called it the Seibu Kingdom.

From the mid-1980s to 1990, Yoshiaki's empire was on top of the world. The Seibu Group was so powerful that local authorities were scared of it. In one Japanese town, Seibu employed a quarter of all employees. Seibu also drove those employees to polling booths to support the firm's preferred candidates during elections. In 1987, Yoshiaki had a net worth of $20 billion. That's the same as around $45 billion in today's dollars.

1991 – 1992: Taikichiro Mori

$18.5 billion (1991)

$13 billion (1992)

Taikichiro Mori was the founder of the Mori Building Company. Long before he decided to get into the real estate business, he was a professor. Mori graduated from the Tokyo College of Commerce (now Hitotsubashi University) in 1928. He became a professor of economics at Kyoto Sericulture Technical High School (now Kyoto Institute of Technology) in 1932. In 1946, he went to work for Yokohama City University, where, from 1954 to 1959, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce. It was while he was working for Yokohama City University that he founded the Mori Building Company. He died in 1993 of heart failure at the age of 88.

1993 – 1994: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

$9 billion (1993)

$8.5 billion (1994)

Upon the death of Taikichiro Mori in January 1993, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi once again became the richest person in the world once again. At the time, Yoshiaki had a net worth of $9 billion. Yoshiaki is credited with single-handedly bringing the Winter Olympics back to Asia at Nagano in 1998, using a mixture of money and charm with a whiff of scandal and corruption. Tsutsumi also got into sports, building a stadium in Tokyo for his professional baseball team, the Seibu Lions.

Unfortunately, 1987 would prove to be the peak of his fortunes, literally and figuratively. His net worth waned in the 1990s as Japan experienced widespread economic malaise and soon lost its status as the world's industrial and technological powerhouse. In 1994, Tsutsumi had a net worth of $8.5 billion. Things got worse in the 2000s. Japanese regulators began investigating Yoshiaki and Seibu in the early 2000s. He was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of violating securities laws. He pleaded guilty and was initially sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, but ultimately served a four-year suspended sentence. He was sued by his own company and, in 2016 agreed to pay a $200 million settlement. He is no longer a billionaire.

1995 – 2007: Bill Gates

$12.9 billion (1995)

$18 billion (1996)

$36.4 billion (1997)

$51 billion (1998)

$90 billion (1999)

$60 billion (2000)

$58.7 billion (2001)

$52.8 billion (2002)

$47 billion (2003)

$46.6 billion (2004)

$50 billion (2005)

$52 billion (2006)

$56 billion (2007)

Bill Gates became the richest person in the world for the first time in 1995, with a net worth of $12.9 billion. After adjusting for inflation, that's the same as around $26 billion in today's dollars.

Microsoft went public in 1986. On the day of the IPO, Gates' equity gave him a paper fortune of $350 million. A year later he was a billionaire, with a net worth of $1.25 billion. By 1990, his net worth was $2.5 billion. By 1994, it was $8 billion.

In 1995, Bill's $12.9 billion net worth was enough to top the waning fortune of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and earn him the rank of richest person in the world for the first time in his life. Bill would go on to hold this rank uninterrupted for the next 12 years.

Gates' net worth shot up from $12.9 billion to $90 billion by 1999. Being worth $99 billion in 1999 is the same as being worth around $185 billion today, after adjusting for inflation. And then the dot-com bubble burst. In 2000, Gates' net worth had dropped to $60 billion, then to $58.7 billion in 2001, $52.8 billion in 2002, $47 billion in 2003, and $46.6 billion in 2004. It fluctuated between $50 and $56 billion between 2005 and 2007.

2008: Warren Buffett

$62 billion (2008)

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has consistently been near the top of the world's richest people for the past, well, as long as a list has been recorded, but 2008 was the one and only year so far that he has been the world's richest person, thanks to his net worth of $60 billion.

It's fitting, in a way, that 2008, the year that the global financial crisis took hold, was a good one for frugal Buffett. Also easing his way to the top spot was the fact that 2008 was the year that Gates stepped down as Chairman of Microsoft to devote himself to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Today Warren Buffet's net worth is $130 billion, which is only enough to make him the ninth richest person in the world.

2009: Bill Gates

$40 billion (2009)

Over the next 12 months, Buffett saw shares of Berkshire Hathaway drop nearly 50% in 12 months and wiped out $25 billion of his net worth. That paved the way for Gates to once again assume the title of the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $40 billion.

2010 – 2013: Carlos Slim Helu

$53.4 billion (2010)

$73 billion (2013)

This period in time was remarkable, in the fact that for the third year in a row, there was a new richest man in the world. This time, it was the richest man in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu, who booted Bill Gates out of the top spot. Slim holds a 57% stake in the mobile phone giant America Movil. He also holds large stakes in the banking and insurance company Grupo Financiero Inbursa and holding company Grupo Carso, and other stakes in companies including Minera Frisco and the New York Times. Even though he has transferred stakes to his six children. Slim Helu reigned as the richest man for four years, with a net worth in 2011 of $74 billion, $69 billion in 2012, and $73 billion in 2013.

Today Carlis Slim Helu's net worth is $101 billion which makes him "just" the 12th richest person in the world.

2014 – 2017: Bill Gates

$76 billion (2014)

$86 billion (2017)

In 2014, Bill Gates grabbed the top spot once again and held onto it for four years, holding off the rise of Jeff Bezos' fortune as well as Bernard Arnault, Warren Buffett, and Carlos Slim Helu. He stepped completely away from Microsoft in 2014. His 2015 net worth was $79.2 billion, $75 billion in 2016, and $86 billion in 2017.

2018 – 2021: Jeff Bezos

$112 billion (2018)

$170 billion (2019)

$111 billion (2020)

A new world order in many ways happened in 2018 when Bezos and Gates both crossed the threshold of $100 billion in total net worth. That was also the first full year Jeff was the richest person on the planet. He topped Bill for the first time in July 2017, quickly lost the crown… the re-gained it for the next two years straight.

Bezos' 2019 net worth was, at one point, $170 billion. Then he got divorced and parted with a roughly $40 billion chunk of Amazon stock in his settlement with ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.

2021 – 2024: Elon Musk

Elon Musk's net worth was "just" $30 billion at the beginning of 2020. Fast forward to November 2021, and for a brief period, Elon Musk was worth $340 billion. That was enough to make him the richest person in modern history, breaking a record that had been held by John D. Rockefeller for over 80 years. At least for now, that November 2021 number is looking a lot like the zenith for Musk's wealth. He ended 2022 with a net worth of $200 billion. He ended 2023 with a net worth of $220 billion.

2024: Elon + Bezos + Bernard Arnault

As I type this article, we are just 2.5 months into 2024. Roughly 75 days. In that short period three different men have held the title of richest person in the world. Elon Musk started out the year in the top slot with a net worth of $220 billion. Unfortunately, the first quarter of 2024 has been brutal to Elon. Elon has seen $40 billion disappear from his net worth year-to-date. That's a larger loss than any other billion this year so far.

On March 5, Jeff Bezos re-took the top slot when his $198 billion net worth surpassed Elon's $192 billion net worth. Meanwhile, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault was waiting in the cut. With LVMH's stock price inching higher and Amazon's inching lower, on March 8, Bernard ended the day with a net worth of $201 billion, which was $3 billion more than Jeff Bezos was worth. At that point, Bernard became the richest person in the world for the first time in his life. Though it should be noted that other less-reliable outlets have previously reported Bernard as being the richest person in the world, but those previous reports from 2023 were not accurate. March 8, 2024, was the first day Bernard Arnault was the richest person on earth. He continues to wear the crown at the time we published this article.