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Carlos Slim - Increased his net wealth to $74bn -
Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - US pair have a combined wealth of $106bn
Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim remains the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine's 2011 list of the world's billionaires.
Mr Slim has a net wealth of $74bn thanks to his telecoms empire - an increase of $20.5bn on last year.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is in second place with $56bn. Forbes said Mr Gates' ranking reflected his enormous philanthropic give-aways over the year.
Next up was US investment guru Warren Buffett and Bernard Arnault from the luxury goods group LVMH with $50bn and $41bn respectively.
The richest person listed for Ireland is Pallonji Mistry, who is 103rd overall at $8.8bn.
Forbes calls him a reclusive construction tycoon who is rarely seen in public.
His company is known for building two 60-storey residential towers in Mumbai and he has holdings in Tata and Corus Steel, Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley.
He is listed as having Irish citizenship, but lives in Mumbai.
The magazine said a tidal wave of money is flowing across Asia, which helped lift the total world population of billionaires to a record 1,210 from 1,011 last year.
The US still leads with just over 33% of the world's mega-rich. Surging forward is the Asia-Pacific region, which overtook Europe for the first time.
'The global economy is recovering, but it's not spread all across the board,' said Steve Forbes, editor in chief of the business magazine.
'The list reflects the extraordinary changes taking place in the global economy.'
The billionaire surge saw an increase in China from 69 to 115, from 25 to 36 in Hong Kong, from 49 to 55 in India and from 234 to 332 as a whole across Asia-Pacific.
There are 'literally millions of people around the world who have the opportunity to be creative,' Mr Forbes said.
Forbes list of billionaires:
1 Carlos Slim (Mexico) Telecom $74bn
2 Bill Gates (US) Microsoft $56bn
3 Warren Buffett (US) Berkshire Hathaway $50bn
4 Bernard Arnault (France) LVMH $41bn
5 Larry Ellison (US) Oracle $39.5bn
6 Lakshmi Mittal (India) Steel $31.1bn
7 Amancio Ortega (Spain) Zara $31bn
8 Eike Batista (Brazil) Mining $30bn
9 Mukesh Ambani (India) Oil and gas $27bn
10 Christy Walton and family (US) Wal-Mart $26.5bn
11 Li Ka-shing (Hong Kong) Diversified $26bn
12 Karl Albrecht (Germany) Aldi $25.5bn
13 Stefan Persson (Sweden) H&M $24.5bn
14 Vladimir Lisin (Russia) Steel $24bn
15 Liliane Bettencourt (France) L'Oreal $23.5bn
