The Ten Richest Women in the World are a diverse group, from self-made entrepreneurs to heirs to family fortunes. They come from all over the globe, and their industries range from fashion and beauty to technology and manufacturing. Despite their differences, these richest women share one thing in common: they are all incredibly wealthy. In 2024, the richest woman in the world will be Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oreal. Her net worth is estimated at $80.5 billion.
The Billionaires List, published annually by Forbes Magazine since 1987, ranks the world’s richest women based on their documented net worth. This compilation provides a snapshot of the wealthiest billionaires on a global scale each year in March.
The net total worth of each person is approximated based on their reported assets, accounting for debt, and other considerations. The ranking published the net total worth of each person in US dollars. These rankings do not include royalty or dictators whose wealth is derived from their status.
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Top 10 Richest Women in the World for 2024
In a world where financial landscapes are constantly evolving, the emergence of women at the forefront of wealth creation and management is a testament to the shifting dynamics of power and influence. The journey towards gender equality has found a formidable ally in the realm of finance, as women continue to break barriers and secure their positions among the global elite. In this blog, we delve into the lives and fortunes of the richest women in the world, exploring the unique stories, challenges, and triumphs that have propelled these remarkable individuals to the zenith of financial success.
1. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
• Age: 69 years (born July 10, 1953)
• Net Worth: $65.7 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: L’Oreal
She is a French businesswoman, philanthropist, creator, and billionaire heiress, and is getting a comprehensive place in the Top Ten Richest Women in the World, with a predicted internet worth of US$87.4 billion as of March 2022, in line with Forbes.
She is the most effective baby, the heiress of Liliane Bettencourt, and the granddaughter of L’Oreal founder Eugene Schueller. Her mother died in September 2017, and then her fortune tripled along with her investments through her circle of relatives keeping organization, Tethys Invest, and the high valuation of L’Oreal stocks on the stock exchange. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is a businesswoman from Paris, France. Since 1997, Francoise has served L’Oreal as the chairwoman of the employer.
She became the richest woman in the world in 2024. She took over the reign of the agency after her mother, Liliane Meyers, who became additionally the richest lady of her time. Apart from being a businesswoman, Bettencourt Meyers is also a writer and philanthropist. She is the president of the philanthropic foundation run with the aid of her family.
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2. Julia Koch
• Age: 60 years ( April 12, 1962)
• Net Worth: $58 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Koch Foundation
She is an American socialite and philanthropist who’s one of the richest women in the world. In the once-a-year Forbes ranking for April 2024, she ranked 2nd among the richest ladies in the world, with a fortune of $59 billion.
She inherited her fortune from her husband, David Koch, who died in 2019. A businesswoman and a known philanthropist, Julia Koch is a local of Iowa. She is the president of the Koch Foundation. She holds a 42 percent stake in the organization, along with her three children.
Julia married the well-known businessman and philanthropist David Koch. Julia and her husband have donated generously for social reasons. After the death of her husband in 2019, Julia endured her philanthropic paintings.
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3. Alice Walton
• Age: 73 years (born October 7, 1949)
• Net Worth: $59 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Walmart
Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas. She was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics. Early in her career, Walton became a cash manager for First Commerce Corporation and headed fundraising sports at Arvest Bank Group.
Alice Walton has additionally become a broker for EF Hutton. In 1988, Walton-based Llama Company, an investment bank, hired her as president, chairwoman, and CEO. She founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art which opened to the general public in 2011.
The museum houses the works of some famous artists like Mark Rothko, Norman Rockwell, and Andy Warhol. Her mother became the foundation behind her choice of artwork. She started taking a hobby in painting and high-quality arts. Afterward, she studied and gathered treasured artifacts.
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4. Jacqueline Mars
• Age: 83 years (born October 10, 1939)
• Net Worth: $38.1 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Mars Inc.
She graduated from Miss Hall’s School, located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Mars participated as an equestrian in lots of horseback rides in the course of her young people. She is a 1961 graduate of Bryn Mawr College, and her degree is in anthropology.
Mars is a heiress to many of the participants in the Mars family that is based and owns Mars Incorporated, protecting shares in the employer. As a family member, her stocks of Mars Inc. and other properties had been envisioned via Forbes magazine in January 2019 to be worth $23.Five billion, making her the 18th richest American and #34 on its listing of
The World’s Billionaires: The most famous logos of Mars are Milky Way, Musketeers, Twix, Snickers, and Skittles. Jacqueline served on the organization’s board until 2016. She is associated with the United States Equestrian Crew as a trustee.
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5. Miriam Adelson and family
• Age: 77 years (born 10 October, 1945)
• Net Worth: $28.3 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Las Vegas Sands
Born in Israel, Miriam Adelson turned into a scientific physician treating addiction. She married Sheldon Adelson, CEO and chairman of a casino enterprise named Las Vegas Sands. After the death of her husband in 2021, she owned more than half of Sheldon’s empire of casinos in Las Vegas, Singapore, and Macao. Along with her husband, she founded the Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas to treat people who are tormented by opioid use problems.
Miriam Adelson is an American and Israeli medical doctor and billionaire. After her marriage to American enterprise tycoon Sheldon Adelson in 1991, she became a donor to conservative political causes in the United States and Israel. The Adelsons donated to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential marketing campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund in opposition to the Mueller research into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. She is the contemporary writer of the newspaper Israel Hayom.
She is also a balloting member of the board of trustees at the University of Southern California. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson had been presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by way of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution in 2008. In 2013, she received honorary citizenship in Jerusalem. She changed to providing the Presidential Medal of Freedom by way of Donald Trump in 2018.
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6. Rafaela Aponte-Diamant
• Age: 78 years (Born March 26, 1945 )
• Net Worth: $28.6 billion as of June 2023
• Source of Income: Israel
Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, with a net worth of $28.6 billion as of June 2023, holds the title of the world’s wealthiest self-made woman, according to Forbes’ 2023 Billionaires list. Her fortune comes from owning a 50% stake in the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Group, the largest shipping line globally, while the other half belongs to her husband, Gianluigi.
Ranked as the 43rd richest person in the world in Forbes’ 2024 Billionaires ranking, the 78-year-old Swiss entrepreneur met Gianluigi when he was a ship captain during a trip to Capri, Italy, in the 1960s. In 1970, they ventured into the shipping industry together, purchasing their first ship with a $200,000 loan. The couple’s second ship was named after Rafaela.
Over the years, MSC expanded into cruises with the acquisition of the line Monterey in 1988. Today, the company operates in over 155 countries, boasting 675 offices and employing 150,000 personnel. MSC’s shipping line serves over 260 trade routes, reaching more than 520 ports.
Aside from shipping, the privately owned company has interests in cruise ships (MSC Cruises), inland logistics (Medlog), and port operations (Terminal Investment Limited). Rafaela and Gianluigi have two children, Alexa and Diego, with Diego holding the position of group president of the family business.
Rafaela now focuses on the interiors of cruise ships and serves on the board of the MSC Foundation. Although the Aponte family maintains Italian citizenship, they reside in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 2018, the Aponte family established the MSC Foundation to lead and coordinate conservation and humanitarian efforts globally. By 2024, the MSC Foundation had made total donations amounting to $12.9 million. Furthermore, in December 2024, MSC acquired Bollore Africa Logistics, the African shipping and logistics arm of the Bollore Group, for a sum of $6 billion.
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7. Susanne Klatten
• Age: 60 years (born 28 April, 1962)
• Net Worth: $22.7 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: BMW, Altana
Klatten was born in Bad Homburg, West Germany. After gaining a degree in enterprise finance, she worked for the advertising organization Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt from 1981 to 1983. This change was observed via a route in advertising, marketing, and management at the University of Buckingham and an MBA from the IMD Business School in Lausanne specializing in advertising.
She received similar commercial enterprise experience in London with Dresdner Bank, Munich Department of Control consultants McKinsey, and the financial institution Bankhaus Reuschel & Co.
A German billionaire, Sussane Klatten is the richest woman in Germany and the 8th richest woman in the world. Susanne is the daughter of esteemed industrialists Herbert Quandt and Johanna Quandt. Her father guided BMW to the eminent luxury marketplace. Susanne Klatten holds a 19% stake in the BMW employer, which makes her one of the important shareholders of the agency.
Sussane is likewise the proprietor of the pharmaceutical agency, Altana. She converted Altana AG right into a global-famous pharmaceutical emblem. In addition to this, she also owns stakes in businesses named Entrust and SGL Group
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8. Gina Rinehart
• Age: 68 years ( born February 9, 1954)
• Net Worth: $26.7 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Hancock Prospecting
Gina Rinehart, an Australian business executive, carries on her father’s legacy by leading his privately held mining company, Hancock Prospecting. As the Executive Chairman, she successfully rescued the company from bankruptcy, transforming it into a thriving enterprise.
As the richest individual in Australia, Gina Rinehart’s most significant asset is the Roy Hill mining project, which started shipping to Asia in 2015. Her generosity extends beyond business success, as she has donated a substantial amount of $30 million to Australia’s Olympic teams. Born in Perth, Western Australia, she spent her early years in the Pilbara region.
She attended St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls as a boarder and briefly studied at the University of Sydney before joining her father’s business at Hancock Prospecting. Being Lang Hancock’s only child, she succeeded him as the executive chairman after his passing in 1992. Under her leadership, the company underwent remarkable growth, becoming the largest private company in Australia and one of the largest mining corporations globally.
Upon taking over Hancock Prospecting, its estimated total wealth was $75 million, excluding institutional and contingent liabilities. Over the next decade, Rinehart oversaw the company’s expansion, and with the iron ore boom in the early 2000s, she became the richest woman in 2006. In the 2010s, she diversified her holdings beyond the mining industry.
Rinehart made substantial investments in Ten Network Holdings and Fairfax Media (though she sold her interest in the latter in 2015) and ventured into agriculture, acquiring several cattle stations, which she divested within a decade.
Gina Rinehart’s journey from managing her father’s company to becoming one of the most influential figures in the business world exemplifies her determination and business acumen, making her a prominent and successful businesswoman on the global stage.
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9. MacKenzie Scott
• Age: 52 years (Born on April 7, 1970)
• Net Worth: $26.7 Billion (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Amazon
She changed her name after her maternal grandfather, G. Scott Cuming, who worked as a government official and was a well-known counsel at El Paso Natural Gas. She recollects critically writing at the age of six when she wrote The Book Worm, a 142-page book that was destroyed in a flood.
In 1988, she graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. In 1992, Tuttle earned her bachelor’s diploma in English from Princeton University, where she studied under Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison, who described Tuttle as “one of the excellent college students I’ve ever had in my innovative writing classes”.
An American novelist, MacKenzie Scott is known for her involvement in Amazon and her philanthropic deeds. She became a pupil of the writer Toni Morrison and wrote novels. In her youth, she was associated with Princeton and worked as a research assistant.
She got married to Jeff Bezos. After her divorce from Jeff in 2019, she was entitled to 25% of the stakes in Amazon. She is the foremost shareholder in Amazon. MacKenzie Scott signed the Giving Pledge and pledged to give away half of her wealth throughout her existence.
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10. Iris Fontbona & family
• Age: 79 years (born 1942/1943)
• Net Worth: $18.7 Billion (With her Family) (as of November 2022)
• Source of Income: Antofagasta
When she turned 17, she met Andronico Luksic Abaroa, who was 15 years older than her and who had married him by the time she turned 20. Luksic had five youngsters together with his first spouse, Patricia Lederer, who died earlier than he did. Fontbona became the stepmother of Andronico Luksic Craig when she was 7 years old.
Another of her sons was Guillermo Luksic, who died of lung cancer in 2013. The couple had three kids of their own. A Chilean businesswoman, Iris Fontbona, is one of the richest ladies in the world and has a net worth of billions.
She is the widow of Chilean mining entrepreneur Andronico Luksic, who died of cancer in 2005. After his demise, Iris and her three youngsters became the legal inheritors of Antofagasta, a copper mine in Chile that traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Iris, together with her youngsters, owns the bulk inventory within the organization. She incorporates the legacy of her overdue husband’s business together with her son, Jean-Paul Luksic, who holds the position of chairman in Antofagasta. Apart from this, she additionally owns a majority stake in Quinenco.
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FAQs
Q. Who will be the richest woman in the world in 2024?
Rafaela Aponte-Diamant is the richest self-made woman on Forbes’ 2024 billionaires list. The 79-year-old cofounded MSC in 1970, and it’s now one of the world’s largest shipping companies.
Q. Who is the richest person in 2024?
Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods group, has reclaimed the top spot as the richest person on January 31, 2024, surpassing Elon Musk.
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Q: How many women billionaires are there in 2024?
As of 2023, there are over 120 women billionaires globally, a significant increase from previous years.
Q: Are there any self-made women billionaires in the technology sector?
Yes, several self-made women billionaires in the technology industry have achieved success through their innovative ventures.
Q: What industries have the highest representation of women billionaires?
The technology, finance, and healthcare industries have the highest representation of women billionaires.
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Q: How do these women billionaires contribute to philanthropic causes?
Many of these women billionaires have established foundations and initiatives that support education, healthcare, and social welfare.
Q: How has the perception of women in the business world changed over the years?
Over the years, the perception of women in the business world has evolved positively, recognizing their competence and leadership abilities.
Conclusion
The year 2024 marked a transformative period for women who achieved remarkable success and influence, solidifying their positions among the world’s richest women. The efforts of these visionary leaders have set a new standard for future generations, proving that with determination, innovation, and compassion, barriers can be broken and a lasting impact can be made on the world.
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