The number of billionaires worldwide surpassed 3,000 for the first time in 2025, with their collective wealth reaching $18.3 trillion (£13.7 trillion), according to Oxfam's annual inequality report. Since 2020, billionaire wealth has grown by 81%, or $8.2 trillion, an amount the charity says could eradicate global poverty 26 times over. In the UK, billionaires saw their fortunes rise by £11 billion during the same period, even as millions of Britons struggle with rising living costs and austerity.
The report, titled 'Brazen', accuses governments of choosing 'the rule of the rich' and brutally suppressing protests over inequality, corruption, and unemployment. Max Lawson, co-author of the report, said: 'Governments worldwide are making the wrong choice; choosing to defend wealth, not freedom. Choosing the rule of the rich. Choosing to repress their people’s anger at how life is becoming unaffordable and unbearable, rather than redistributing wealth from the richest to the rest.'
Protests erupted in several countries over the past year, including Kenya and Nepal, where youth-led uprisings challenged the influence of the wealthy. In Kenya, activist Wanjira Wanjiru highlighted the stark contrast in Mathare slum, where residents lack clean water while a nearby golf club waters its greens. In Nepal, protests in September 2025 forced the government to step down after anger over corruption targeted the country's only billionaire, Binod Chaudhary, whose properties were burned down.
The report warns that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely than an ordinary person to hold political office, and more than half of the world's media companies and nine of the top ten social media platforms are owned by billionaires. Research from the US cited by Oxfam shows that if the rich support a policy, it has a 45% chance of being adopted, compared with 18% if they oppose it. The charity calls for urgent action to tax the wealthy and redistribute resources to tackle poverty and inequality.
