The number of dollar millionaires rose from 10 million in 2009 to 13.7 million in 2013. Since the financial crisis, the ranks of the world's billionaires has more than doubled, swelling to 1,645 people. At the start of 2014 the richest 85 people on the planet owned as much as the poorest half of humanity. Between March 2013 and March 2014, these 85 people grew 668_million USD_richer each day. It is said that if Bill Gates were to cash in all of his wealth, and spend a million dollars_every single day, it would take him 218 years to spend it all. In reality though, he would never run out of money: even a modest return of just under 2 per cent would make him 4.2 million USD each day in interest alone.
And extreme wealth is not just a rich-country story: the number of known billionaires in India increased from two in the 1990s, to 65 in early 2014. Sub-Saharan Africa has 16 billionaires, alongside the_358 million people living in extreme poverty.
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