The richest people on the planet are much more likely to be in high political positions than everyone else, according to Oxfam's annual inequality report.
About 74 of the world's 2,027 billionaires held executive or legislative government positions in 2023, giving them a 3.6% chance of holding office, according to an Oxfam study. In contrast, the average global citizen has just a 0.0009% chance of holding such a position.
“This year's report really shines a light on the connection between political and economic inequality,“ said Rebecca Riedel, senior policy director for economic justice at Oxfam America, as quoted by CNN. “The fact that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold office than you or me underscores the extent of the excessive power that billionaires wield.“
The Oxfam report, which draws on data compiled by Forbes and other sources, was timed to coincide with the start of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, an elite gathering of some of the world's wealthiest people and world leaders. Its release also comes as US President Donald Trump, who is a billionaire, marks his first year in office.
Trump has assembled the wealthiest cabinet and team in modern American history, with multiple billionaires and multimillionaires leading government agencies. The administration, together with the Republican-led Congress, last year passed a sweeping domestic policy package that included major tax breaks for the wealthy and historic cuts to the nation's Social Security program. Trump is also trying to strip union protections from a significant portion of the federal workforce, as well as roll back consumer protections and corporate regulations.
“A billionaire-led administration has imposed a pro-billionaire agenda that has pushed the United States to the brink of extremes in inequality,” Riedel said.
"But oligarchy is a global problem," she said. The report found that the richest men in Argentina and Africa have close ties to the president of Argentina and the leader of Nigeria, respectively, which has led to tax breaks for their businesses.
2025 was a prosperous year for the world's billionaires. Their wealth grew three times faster last year than the average over the past five years, reaching a record $18.3 trillion, Oxfam found.
Their collective wealth jumped by $2.5 trillion, almost equal to the wealth owned by the 4.1 billion people in the bottom half of the wealth ladder. "Two-thirds of that growth would be enough to end global poverty in a year," Riedel said.
In the United States, the net worth of billionaires is just under $8 trillion. It is also home to 932 billionaires, more than any other country.
"America may soon witness the world's first trillionaire. If Elon Musk has as profitable a year in 2026 as he did last year, his fortune will exceed $1 trillion. USD before the next forum in Davos", Riedel said.
Meanwhile, the pace of global poverty reduction has stalled, with levels broadly where they were in 2019, according to Oxfam. Nearly half the world's population – or 3.8 billion people, lived in poverty in 2022.
To address the imbalance, Oxfam calls for reducing inequality by promoting workers' rights, raising wages, breaking up monopolies, and strengthening universal public services and the social safety net; limiting the power of the super-rich by raising taxes and introducing campaign finance reform; and building people's political power through voting rights and participatory governance.
“Limiting inequality, limiting the power of the richest, and promoting the power of ordinary people are really key ways to both reduce inequality and promote democracy,“ Riedel said.