Young American billionaires build. Young European billionaires inherit.

The two lines run in opposite directions with age. In the United States, the self-made share of flagged billionaires falls from 100% among the under-30s to 84% in the 50s, 69% in the 60s, and 65% among those in their 70s; outside the US it climbs from 13% among the under-30s to a peak of 71% in the 50s, meaning the youngest non-American billionaires are overwhelmingly heirs. Technology tracks the American curve closely, covering 88% of US under-30s and sliding monotonically to 5% at 80+, while never exceeding 31% in any non-US bucket. Two caveats: self-made shares are computed only among people carrying Forbes' self-made or inherited flag, so the US under-30 figure rests on 5 flagged people out of 8 and the non-US figure on 23 out of 27, and tech shares use everyone in the bucket. Net worths are Forbes estimates.

Current ages on the March 2026 list, self-made per Forbes' flag. The US share is high at every age; elsewhere it climbs with age, because the under-40s outside America are mostly heirs who were handed a stake young. Shares are among people Forbes has flagged (flagged / total): US Under 30 5/8, 30s 26/28, 40s 85/90, 50s 160/170, 60s 258/267, 70s 219/223, 80+ 200/202; elsewhere Under 30 23/27, 30s 70/80, 40s 188/205, 50s 471/494, 60s 647/679, 70s 551/568, 80+ 335/343.

Share whose Forbes industry is Technology, same buckets.

Europe has more young billionaires than the United States — 57 against 36, out of 143 worldwide — but only 26% of the European cohort is self-made, against 90% of the American one. Run the arithmetic and the smaller group is the larger one: roughly 15 self-made Europeans versus about 32 self-made Americans. The industry mix points the same way, with manufacturing (16) narrowly topping technology (15) on Europe's list while technology accounts for 23 of the 36 US names, or 64%. Elsewhere, China (88% self-made) and India (100%, all in technology and finance) look more like the US on this measure, and Latin America's 10 young billionaires are 33% self-made with no technology fortunes at all. Treat the regions with two or three people cautiously: one person moves those shares by 33 to 50 points. Net worths are Forbes estimates.

Countries with at least 25 billionaires, by citizenship. Population is Gapminder's latest estimate. Self-made share is among people Forbes has flagged.

• Hong Kong9.5 · 70 people
• Singapore9.1 · 54 people
• Cyprus7.2 · 10 people
• Switzerland4.9 · 44 people
• Sweden4.8 · 51 people
• Israel4.4 · 42 people
• Norway3.2 · 18 people
• Taiwan2.9 · 66 people
• United States2.8 · 989 people
• Germany2.5 · 212 people
• Ireland2.2 · 12 people
• Greece2.1 · 21 people
• Australia2.1 · 56 people
• Canada2.0 · 82 people
• Belgium1.5 · 18 people

Counts by the citizenship on each person's current Forbes profile, so a person who changed citizenship is counted in their current country throughout. China's count peaked in 2021.