Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim tops Forbes rich list
Bill Gates (pictured) was knocked off the top spot by Carlos Slim
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According to the Forbes rich list Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms bazillionaire, has pushed Bill Gates off the top spot as the world's richest man.
The list also showed that China now has more billionaires than any other country besides the US, while the Grosvenor family were the only UK-based billionaires to make it into the top 50.
Forbes said that Mr Slim, 70, is now worth an estimated $53.5 billion (£35.5 billion), with Microsoft billionaire Mr Gates in second place, followed by previous world's richest man Warren Buffett.
Overall Forbes said that the world has 1,011 billionaires, with the US claiming 403 of those. There were 97 new additions to the list this year, 27 of which were from mainland China.
The youngest person to have been included on the list is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
Despite the global economic crisis, average net worth is up $500 million and only 12 per cent of billionaires have seen their fortunes fall in the last twelve months.
Forbes top ten richest people in the world:
1. Carlos Slim Helu & family ($53.5 billion)
2. William Gates III ($53 billion)
3. Warren Buffett ($47 billion)
4. Mukesh Ambani ($29 billion)
5. Lakshmi Mittal ($28.7 billion)
6. Lawrence Ellison ($28 billion)
7. Bernard Arnault ($27.5 billion)
8. Eike Batista ($27 billion)
9. Amancio Ortega ($25 billion)
10. Karl Albrecht ($23.5 billion)