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The consulting company Wealth-X has published a study on The Billionaire Census on the number of billionaires and the dynamics of their condition. By the end of 2019, the combined wealth of billionaires worldwide grew by 10.3%, to $9.4 trillion, and Russia — 9.9%, to $390 billion At the same time, Wealth-X warns that the pandemic coronavirus make a real reboot among the world’s billionaires — now experts have recorded a marked increase in the status of entrepreneurs in the field of high technology, insurance and medicine and a sharp decline in the automobile industry, aviation industry and media.In the next “census of billionaires” conducted by Wealth-X, noted that by the end of 2019, their number increased worldwide by 8.5% to 2825 people. Their combined fortune grew by 10.3% to us $9.4 trillion. Experts note that the positive dynamics was due to the overall growth of stock markets in 2019, which occurred despite the slowing of the world economy due to trade wars between the US and China, and also because of the uncertainty around the “Breccia”. However, the United States, where the number of billionaires increased by 11.8%, retained first place as their number — 788 people and their total wealth is $3.4 trillion, an increase of 13.9%.In third place was Germany with 153 billionaires and $477 billion in an Honorable fourth place by the number of billionaires is Russia: last year the country increased significantly as their number — by 11.8% to 114 students and a state — by 9.9%, to $390 billion From Russia lagged behind Switzerland in fifth place, 100 billionaires with $274 billion — and the UK — 100 billionaires $217 billion, the report Wealth-X noted that among the three “neighbors” in the number of billionaires — Russia Switzerland and the UK — the first two showed in 2019 good momentum, whereas in the UK the growing number of billionaires and their state was very modest 3.1% and 3.5%, respectively. In Russia, as explained by Wealth-X, the positive dynamics was shown by the growth of stock markets, the easing of monetary policy and relative growth rate of the ruble, which has partly compensated for the investment portfolio negative factor from lower commodity prices.Speaking about the events of this year, the report’s authors stress that it will make major changes in the balance of power among the billionaires. “While billionaires as a social group share some common characteristics, the impact of the epidemic will not be the same for all”,— the report says.These effects largely depend on which industries are concentrated in the assets of an entrepreneur or investor. Already by the end of may 2020, Wealth-X noted a positive trend among billionaires, associated with high technology: if the end of 2019, was 8.4% of the total number of billionaires in the world, at the end of may — already at 17.9%. In the win also turned out to be entrepreneurs related to insurance: the increase in the share of billionaires from 8.4% to 11.4%. At the same time sharply negative trend became apparent among the billionaires associated with the most affected by the pandemic markets — automotive industry (-7.4 per cent), media (-5,2%), luxury goods (-16,9%) and aviation industry (-53,7%).Eugene Tail