Bill Gates remains the richest man in the world with a net wealth of $81 billion, and Warren Buffett held onto the second place with $78 billion. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc, reached the top three for the first time, after his wealth surged 37 percent to $72 billion.

 

The total number of Chinese billionaires exceeded that of the United States for the second year running. China and the US, with 609 and 552 billionaires respectively, accounted for half of the billionaires worldwide, the report said.

 

Globally, the logistics and retail sectors performed the best, gaining 15 percent and 13 percent respectively, in terms of the number of billionaires.

 

Meanwhile, Germany had the third-largest number of billionaires this year, surpassing India. The United Arab Emirates and Indonesia broke into the top 20 for the first time.

 

"Shenzhen and Hong Kong now have one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world, ahead of even California, the state with the most billionaires in the US," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.

 

"Global wealth is being concentrated in the hands of the billionaires at a rate far exceeding global growth," Hoogewerf added.

 

China added 41 billionaires over last year and their average age was 58, younger than the global average of 64.

 

The IPO of Chinese leading delivery and logistics firm SF Express Group Co in February made Wang Wei, the CEO of the company, the third-richest man in China.

 

His wealth surged fivefold to $27 billion, just behind Dalian Wanda's Wang Jianlin with $30 billion and Alibaba's Jack Ma with $29 billion.

 

In China, the real estate sector generated the biggest number of billionaires, followed by the manufacturing, technology, media, and telecom industries.

 

At the same time, 15 percent of the billionaires were women. Among the 152 women who made the fortunes by themselves, Chinese led the way with 121.

 

"China is indisputably now the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur," Hoogewerf said.