19-year-old Brazilian is the youngest billionaire in the world, says “Forbes”

Brazilian Livia Voigt, aged 19, is the youngest person in the world on the magazine’s 2024 list of billionaires Forbes, released this Tuesday (April 2, 2024). Livia inherited a fortune of US$1.1 billion (R$5.5 billion) after her grandfather, co-founder of electrical equipment producer WEG, died.

The young woman owns 3.1% of WEG, a company based in Santa Catarina. Werner Ricardo, founder of the brand, died at the age of 85 from natural causes in 2016. In addition to Livia, sister Dora Voigt de Assis, aged 26, inherited part of the fortune and is on the North American publication’s super-rich list.

The two sisters are part of a group of 69 Brazilians present in the 2024 billionaires survey. With a fortune of US$28 billion, the richest Brazilian is Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook.

The survey shows a new record in the number of billionaires around the world. There were 2,781 billionaires counted, compared to 2,141 in 2023. The previous record was in 2021, with 2,755 super-rich.

The total wealth of this group also grew and reached US$ 14.2 trillion (R$ 71.7 trillion). The amount is US$1.1 trillion (R$5.55 trillion) greater than that of 2021, which had the previous record.

The concentration of wealth is also more pronounced in 2024. Only 0.5% of the 2,781 billionaires in the world own 14% of all billionaire wealth. Furthermore, 2/3 of the super-rich are richer than they were 1 year ago.