The world's richest people have failed to escape the ravages of recession with billionaires seeing their wealth shrink by almost a quarter in the last year, business magazine Forbes says.
Its annual list revealed that nine in ten billionaires lost money over the past 12 months, with the average hit being 23% of total wealth.
In a sign that the global economic downturn is hitting the highest earners, the Forbes list is smaller than last year. In 2008 there were 1,125 billionaires. This year, the number of uber-rich had shrunk to 793 - a drop of almost a third. Their net worth plummeted to $2.4 trillion from $4.4 trillion.
The list shows that US tycoons are back on top with Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world's richest man in a year. He is listed as having a net worth of $40 billion, although he saw his bank balance lose $18 billion over the last 12 months.
In second place came investor Warren Buffett with $37 billion, despite losing $25 billion this year in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway shares.
Also losing $25 billion, Mexican telecoms king Carlos Slim still managed to come in third with $35 billion.
Denis O'Brien has replaced Sean Quinn as the richest Irish-born billionaires, the Forbes magazine reports. Telecoms entrepreneur O'Brien is listed as having a personal fortune of $2.2 billion and stands at 305 in the rich list.
Sean Quinn comes in at number 468 on the rich list with Forbes estimating that his riches fell by $4.5 billion last year to $1.5 billion. He shares that position with businessman Dermot Desmond who has a net worth $1.5 billion.
Forbes has dropped Independent News & Media's Anthony O'Reilly from the list after saying that his fortune flopped by $1.1 billion last year.
The richest Irish citizen, according to Forbes, is Indian-born Pallonji Mistry, who got an Irish passport two years ago. His fortune stands at $2.5 billion and he stands at 261 in the list. The second richest in John Dorrance 111, the US-born heir to the Campbell's soup fortune who received an Irish passport some years ago and who stand at 296 in the list.
The US surge sent billionaires from India, Russia and Turkey into retreat. US rich filled 10 of the 20 top spots and New York replaced Moscow as home to most billionaires, with 55 to 27. London comes in second with 28.
Russia, where wealth is closely tied to commodity prices, lost almost two thirds of its billionaires, down from 87 to 32. Russian oligarchs have long been famous for flaunting their wealth, but this year, none of them make it into the elite top 20, compared to four in the 2008 list.
India lost more than half of its billionaires, with the total going from 53 to 24. Two Indians appear in the top 20, notably steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal with just $19.3 billion after losing $25.7 billion over the last year.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at number 17, was notable as the only top 20 member to see a net gain. That was not because of his salary, which is a symbolic $1 a year, but thanks to re-evaluation of his Bloomberg financial news agency after he bought a 20% stake from Merrill Lynch last year for $4.5 billion.
About 64% of the billionaires are self-made and their average age is 63.7, a slight rise resulting from the lower number of rich Russians and Chinese, whose average ages last year were 46 and 48.
By contrast with that aging trend, Gates is a relatively youthful 53. The youngest billionaire prize this year goes to Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Germany, who is 25 and listed as having $2.1 billion.
But one of the young success stories from last year - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - dropped off the list altogether.
Others missing the cut this year were AIG chief executive Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg and Sir Allen Stanford, whose role in an alleged fraud saw him stripped of the title.
Fellow accused fraudster Bernard Madoff had an impact on this year's list. The charities of at least seven billionaires were affected by Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud, according to Forbes. Among them were film director Steven Spielberg, art collector Norman Braman and property developer Mort Zuckerman.
One billionaire unlikely to welcome the attention though is Joaquin Guzman Loera, 54, whose $1 billion is derived from cocaine trafficking.
