Forbes Billionaires Sneak Peek: 4 Surprising Nations Mint 6 New Super Rich

In March, Forbes will release its next billionaires list, a compendium of everyone who has at least nine zeroes in the accounting of their personal wealth. While there are still a few months before the big day, the magazine has started letting details trickle out about the newest additions to the list. As I reported earlier, one interesting aspect about these nouveau ultra-riche is the number of them who made their fortunes in fashion. Equally fascinating, however, is where some of the new billionaires hail from.

Admittedly, most of the list comes from three pretty unsurprising places: China, America, and Western Europe. The biggest new contributors are Italy, with five freshly minted billionaires this year, and China and the Netherlands, both of which have four. All told, Europe accounts for 22 of the 35 new inductees.

The big surprise, though, may be the six new billionaires from countries that you might not think of as particularly wealthy.



Bruce Watson is a senior features writer for DailyFinance. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.