List of wealthiest families
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Various lists of the richest families (excluding royal families or autocratic ruling dynasties) are published internationally, by Forbes[1][2] as well as other business magazines.
There is a distinction between wealth held by identifiable individual billionaires or a "nuclear family" and the wider notion of an extended family or a historical "dynasty," where the wealth of a historically family-owned company or business has become distributed between various branches of descendants,[3] usually throughout decades, ranging from several individuals to hundreds of offspring.
According to an August 1, 2020 article from Bloomberg, the world's 25 richest families control more than $1.4 trillion (1,400,000,000,000) of wealth.[4] That figure will change dramatically through time. Bloomberg then puts the top 25 combined wealth at $2.9 trillion at the end of 2025.[5] According to this list as of July 26, 2026 only the world’s 12 richest families, each over $100 billion, control approximately $2.5 trillion of wealth, and the top 25 controls $3.4 trillion.
Contemporary rankings
Note: The list includes families who, according to reliable sources, have a combined net worth of 5 billion US dollars and above.
Historical
Excluding royal dynasties and land-owning aristocracy, the wealthiest families since the emergence of banking and early capitalism in the Italian Renaissance were:[citation needed] [73]
- The Rothschild family of bankers became the richest family in the mid-19th century.[74] The family's accumulated wealth has been divided among many descendants, only one of which (Benjamin de Rothschild) was officially recognized as a billionaire. Determining the family's exact wealth has been deemed implausible;[75] conspiracy theories claiming the family is worth trillions of dollars have not been proven.[76][77]
- The Bardi family of Florence (14th century)
- The Medici family, as owners of the Medici Bank, the richest family in 15th-century Europe.[78]
- The Gondi family of Florence, financial partners of the Medici family in the 15th century.
- The Fugger family of mercantile bankers and venture capitalists, the richest family in the 16th century.[79]
- The Welser family, alongside the Fugger one of the most important families of merchant bankers in 16th-century Europe.
- The Baring family, owners of an important merchant bank in London in the 18th to 19th centuries.
- The Schröder family, a leading Hanseatic family of Hamburg in the 18th to 19th centuries.
- The Goldman–Sachs family, owners of the Goldman Sachs investment bank from 1869 to 1912.[80]
- The Venetian noble houses, notably the Contarini, Cornaro, Dandolo, Giustinian, Loredan, Mocenigo, and Morosini families, monopolised pre-modern trade while ruling the Venetian Republic as a mercantile oligarchy.[81]
Notes
- The $136 billion in assets include charitable foundations and other investment vehicles which are not owned by individual shareholders but still retain successive management.
- The $32 billion in assets include charitable foundations and other investment vehicles which are not owned by individual shareholders but still retain successive management.
- Approximately euro to dollar conversion rate as of September 2019