#12 Liliane Bettencourt

©VILLARD/SIPA

Age: 84
Fortune: inherited

Source: L'Oreal

Net Worth: $20.7 bil

Country Of Citizenship: France

Residence: Paris , France, Europe & Russia

Industry: Manufacturing

Marital Status: married, 1 child

Education:

Daughter of L'Oréal founder Eugene Schueller, a man who is said to have a checkered past with wartime ties to the Nazi regime. Liliane has held onto a controlling stake in the cosmetics giant for more than 4 decades. Her Bettencourt Schueller Foundation supports medical, cultural and humanitarian endeavors in France and developing countries.

#11 Lawrence Ellison

©SF Chronicle/ Mike Kepka

Age: 62

Fortune: self made

Source: Oracle

Net Worth: $21.5 bil

Country Of Citizenship: United States

Residence: Redwood City, California , United States, North America

Industry: Software

Marital Status: married, 2 children

Education: University of Illinois, Drop Out

Brash software titan still at helm of Oracle Systems, database outfit he cofounded 30 years ago. Reshaping the industry with a massive shopping spree; spent $19 billion buying 21 software companies in past 3 years. Biggest acquisitions: PeopleSoft for $11 billion, Siebel Systems for $5.9 billion. Deals added $4.6 billion to company's annual revenue, 18,000 to employee count. Combination makes Oracle, already strong in database management, a big player in business applications like accounting and personnel. Now stitching it all together into software suite Fusion for release by 2008. Predicts earnings will grow 20% a year for the rest of the decade. Chicago native studied physics at U of Chicago; didn't graduate. Started Oracle in 1977. Took public in 1986, a day before Microsoft. Companies have been fiercely competitive ever since. Spends lots of time on distractions: tweaking his 40-acre Japanese-style estate, cruising on his 453-foot yacht, Rising Sun (world's second largest). Plans to sail in 2007 America's Cup in Spain. Turned blasé on being a billionaire: "Money is just a method of keeping score now."

The World's Richest People

Edited by Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass

It has been a busy year for Forbes' team of fortune hunters. Strong equity markets combined with rising real estate values and commodity prices pushed up fortunes from Mumbai to Madrid. Forbes pinned down a record 946 billionaires. There were 178 newcomers, including 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards, as well as the first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.

Ingenuity, not industry, is the common characteristic; these folks made money in everything from media and real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol. Two-thirds of last year's billionaires are richer. Only 17% are poorer, including 32 who fell below the billion-dollar mark. The billionaires' combined net worth climbed by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That equates to $3.6 billion apiece.

The average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than in 2005. This year's new billionaires are seven years younger than that. Of list members' fortunes, 60% made theirs from scratch.

In Pictures: The World's Billionaires

Within the ranks are simmering rivalries. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man for 13 years, and his pal Warren Buffett, who holds the No. 2 spot despite enormous charitable donations, are quickly losing ground to Mexico's most-monied man, Carlos Slim Helú. Helú's net worth is up an astonishing $19 billion this year--the single biggest one-year gain in a decade--and is now just $7 billion shy of Gates and $3 billion less than Buffett. In Europe, Russia's mostly young, self-made tycoons are catching up to Germany's often-aging heirs and heiresses. Russia now has 53 billionaires (2 shy of Germany's total), but they are worth $282 billion ($37 billion more than Germany's richest). After a 20-year reign, Japan is no longer Asia's top spot for billionaires: India has 36, worth a total of $191 billion, followed by Japan with 24, worth a combined $64 billion.

India's rich are also marching toward the top of our rankings. Brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who split up their family’s conglomerate in 2005, join Lakshmi Mittal, who heads the world's biggest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, among the world’s 20 wealthiest. India now has three in the upper echelons, second only to the U.S.

But even in such a prosperous year, 44 people dropped off the list for various reasons.

All our numbers are based on a snapshot of balance sheets taken on Feb. 9, the day we locked in stock prices and exchange rates. So the five executives who took their Fortress Investment Group (nyse: FIG - news - people ) public at 9:30 a.m. on that morning made the cut. Also on the list is Ernest Gallo, founder of E.&J. Gallo Winery, who died on March 6. But our numbers don't reflect the volatility that shook the markets three weeks later. Between Feb. 9 and March 2 the world's stock markets, as measured by the Morgan Stanley All Country World Local Index, fell by 3.7%. Some fortunes (those based on private accumulations of real estate, for example) didn’t feel a blip. But some suffered severe damage. One big loser was a Spaniard, Enrique Banuelos, whose fortune fell 30% in four days.

Are there billionaires we don’t know about? Surely, yes. For instance, we didn't uncover Ireland's Denis O'Brien, who pocketed $800 million in a junk bond offering, until 13 days after we'd locked in fortunes, so he is not reflected in the rankings.

In Pictures: The World's Billionaires

Acknowledgments
Monir Barakat, Wafra Investment Advisory Group; J. M. Degen & Co.; Andriy Dmytrenko, Dragon Capital, Kiev; Euromonitor; Alaric Hu, Bank of America; Ignatov & Co. Group; John S. Mason, Stephen Mason Associates; Millennium Capital; S&J, Korea; Planet Retail, London; Renaissance Capital; Edward W. Townshend, Colliers Jackson-Stops; Jim Wagoner, United Country Lambert Realty; Zawya Research Database; Finn Øystein Bergh, Kapital magazine; Ketil Skjak, real estate analyst, SEB Enskilda

Reported By
Cristina von Zeppelin, Chaniga Vorasarun, Tatiana Serafin, Devon Pendleton, Megha Bahree, Helen Coster, Kerry A. Dolan, Russell Flannery, Suzanne Hoppough, Megan Johnston, Naazneen Karmali, Maxim Kashulinsky, Matthew Miller, Kiyoe Minami, Forbes Russia, Kirill Vishnepolsky

Additional Reporting By
Maggie Chen, Chandrani Ghosh, Lea Goldman, Evan Hessel, Steven Lee, Burak Mavi, Hulya Odemis, Jessica Ramakrishnan, Matthew Rand, Kemal Sen, Matthew Swibel, Forbes Turkey, Nathan Vardi

Research By
Heidi Brown, Forbes Israel, Forbes Poland, Josephine Lee, Theo Albrecht Germany Deborah Orr

Database By
Mitchel Rand

#10 David Thomson & family

Age: 49

Fortune: inherited

Source: inheritance

Net Worth: $22.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: Canada

Residence: Toronto , Canada, North America

Industry: Media/Entertainment

Marital Status: divorced, 3 children

Education:

Took control of family fortune after his father, Kenneth Thomson, died last June. Had already succeeded his father as chairman of Thomson Corp., media conglomerate in which the family has a 70% stake, in 2002. Grandfather Roy founded the business in 1934. Company traded away traditional printed titles in order to move into software and electronic media for professionals, like Westlaw, a legal research tool. With his brother Peter also serves as cochair of family's investment concern, Woodbridge. Well known art collectors, the family bought $5 million worth of native North American art at auction last year, including a $1.8 million face mask, the highest amount ever spent on a single piece of native North American art. David said the family bought the collection in honor of his late father.

#9 Li Ka-shing

Courtesy of Hutchison Whampoa Age: 78

Fortune: self made

Source: diversified

Net Worth: $23.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: Hong Kong

Residence: Hong Kong , Hong Kong, Asia & Australia

Industry: Diversified

Marital Status: widowed, 2 children

Education: High School, Drop Out

Asia's richest resident. His fortune is centered on conglomerates Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa. Through them Li is the world's largest operator of container terminals, a major supplier of electricity to Hong Kong, a cell phone provider, retailer and real estate developer. Also has a nearly $10 billion stake in Canadian oil company Husky Energy. Recently announced plans to donate one-third of wealth over time, calling it "his third son." Eldest son, Victor, helps run massive empire; son Richard struck out on his own in early 1990s. Once a poor immigrant, Li got his start selling plastic flowers in Hong Kong in the 1950s.

#8 Amancio Ortega

Courtesy of Inditex Group Age: 71

Age: 71

Fortune: self made

Source: Zara

Net Worth: $24.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: Spain

Residence: La Coruna , Spain, Europe & Russia

Industry: Apparel

Marital Status: married, 3 children

Education: High School, Drop Out

Son of a railway worker. Ranks among world's 20 richest for first time. With help from then-wife Rosalía Mera, got start making gowns and lingerie in his living room 44 years ago. Business became one of world's most successful apparel manufacturers, $8.7 billion (2005 sales) Inditex. Group also owns 3,000 Zara retail stores in 64 countries. Ortega is chairman. Through his investment vehicles has invested in gas, tourism, banks and real estate; has properties in Madrid, Paris, London, Lisbon, plus luxury hotel and apartment complex in Miami. Reportedly owns a horse-jumping circuit and part of a soccer league. Shuns neckties.

#7 Bernard Arnault

Age: 58

Fortune: inherited and growing

Source: LVMH

Net Worth: $26.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: France

Residence: Paris , France, Europe & Russia

Industry: Diversified

Marital Status: married, 5 children

Education: Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, Bachelor of Arts / Science

Put up $15 million from his family's midsize construction firm to buy Christian Dior in 1985. Since then has built the world's largest luxury goods empire, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, whose brands also include Dom Pérignon, Fendi and Tag Heuer Still heads the company, which is expanding rapidly in China, Russia and India. LVMH recently hired Frank Gehry to design a $127 million private museum in Paris. Son Antoine, 27, joined sister Delphine, 31, on LVMH's board last year. Arnault also set up an investment fund with his good friend Albert Frere in 2006; pair own two wineries together. In December opened his four-star hotel Le Cheval Blanc in ski resort Courcheval, France, where he often spends New Year's Eve. Said to be a skilled pianist.