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5 Surprising Facts About America's Richest Before & During The Pandemic

The pandemic of 2020 brought many hardships for families and individuals all over the world and America was no exception. Large and small businesses were forced to close up shop, millions of jobs were furloughed or lost altogether, and budgets were strained to breaking points. On the other hand, it's obvious that American billionaires had no reason to fret about money during the pandemic, but there are some things that happened during the pandemic that might surprise you when it comes to the 1 percent in the U.S.

RELATED: Data Suggests Where In The World It's Easier To Be In The 1%

5 The 3 Richest American Billionaires Have As Much Wealth As The Lower Half Of All American Households Combined

According to Business Insider, the bigwigs of Amazon, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway are the three richest billionaires in the United States. If you really want to learn what it means to be a famous flourishing billionaire, here's a fun fact. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet, respectively, have as much wealth as the entire bottom half of American households combined. PBS states that the current U.S. population is approximately 331 million. Just trying to imagine how much wealth the bottom half holds seems nearly impossible!

4 The Top 400 Wealthiest Americans Have As Much Money As U.S.'s Lower 64% Combined

Although Bezos, Gates, and Buffet may be the top three richest billionaires in America, they are not lonely at the top. In fact, there's plenty of room in the "Top 400 Club" where some of the wealthiest Americans reside such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Donald Trump. To put things into perspective even more, the 400 wealthiest people in America have a combined net worth of nearly two-thirds of the nation's wealth according to Business Insider,

3 Billionaires In California Had Their Wealth Increase In Spades During The Pandemic

The Golden State is the third largest state in the USA but it's number one when it comes to the most populated state in America with an estimated population of 39,512,223 as of January 2021 according to Moving.com. Because more people call California home than any other state, it only stands to reasons that it would house more billionaires than any other state. According to Patch, Forbes states there are 64 billionaires in San Francisco of California with a combined worth of $241.6 billion, 55 billionaires in Los Angeles who have a combined worth of $193.4 billion and 5 billionaires in San Diego with a combined worth of $10.6 billion. But billionaires, some famous, some not, are scattered all over California, living in Santa Cruz, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Irvine and Palo Alto.

Some of the more well-known California billionaires who faired quite nicely during the pandemic are Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg whose net worth was $54.7 billion in March and $96.8 billion in October, Telsa CEO and Chairman Elon Musk who was worth $24.6 billion in March and $87.9 billion in October, President and Chief Operating Officer of Monster Beverage Hilton Schlosberg who had $1.9 billion in March and $2.6 billion by October, Google Co-Founder and Board Member Larry Page who had $50.9 billion by March and $65.9 billion by October, Asana (a team-based work management app) CEO and Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz who had $9.3 billion in March and a whopping $16.1 by October, and DreamWorks Co-Founder David Geffen who had $7.6 billion in March and $9.0 billion in October.

2 American Billionaire Wealth Nearly Doubled In The Last Decade

It may be a surprise to learn that American billionaires increased their wealth during a time when so many people have lost income but looking at an overall pattern, it really shouldn't be that much of a surprise. According to Business Insider, billionaires in the U.S. experienced a wealth increase of 80.6 percent in 2020 dollars over the last decade including the pandemic.

Similarly, it also shouldn't be a surprise that some of newcomers to the Forbes 400 list are people like Eric Yuan, co-founder of the video-conferencing company Zoom according to king5.com.

1 8 Of America's Wealthiest Billionaires Grew Richer In The First Four Months Of 2020

The 8 wealthiest men in America are considered to be in no particular order: Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google co-founders), Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison, and Steve Ballmer. According to Business Insider, these American billionaires all experienced wealth gains surpassing $1 billion from January 1 to the end of April in 2020, when the pandemic was perhaps at its highest point. To put things into perspective, in just one single day, these mega-billionaires watched their massive wealth increase by $6.2 billion which makes for a combined total of $653.8 billion - again, in just one day in 2020.

READ NEXT: 'Roblox' Founder David Baszucki Enters The Billionaires Club

Sources: businessinsider.com, patch.com, moving.com, pbs.com, king5.com



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