For the eighth year running China has dominated a list of self-made women billionaires, with Chinese women taking the top four places on the rich list compiled by publishers Hurun.

Half of the top 10 richest self-made women in the world are from China and 28 of the 50 women listed.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Premium Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

Zhou Qunfei, the founder of a major smartphone screen maker, Lens Technology whose client list includes Apple and Samsung, was found to be the richest self-made woman, with a fortune of $9.8 billion. She also topped the list in 2015.

Qunfei recently ranked in Forbes list of the world’s 16th richest woman overall, with her richer counterparts having inherited or married wealth.

In second place was real-estate tycoon Wu Yajun from the western city of Chongqing, who is worth $9.3 billion after her wealth leapt 83% in the last 12 months.

Yajun beat out another female real-estate developer, Chen Lihua who topped self-made female rich list in 2017, slipped to third place after her wealth grew only slightly to $8.1 billion from $7.2 billion from last year.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Beijing-born Lihua runs the investment company FuWah and is married to popular Chinese TV star Chi Zhongrui.

The non-Chinese contenders on the list included American Diane Hendricks, the co-founder of Wisconsin-based roofing supply company ABC Supply, one of the US’s largest distributors of roofing and windows.

India, had only one woman entrepreneur on the list — Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw who runs Bangalore based pharmaceutical giant Biocon.

Women made up 15% of the 2018 Global Rich List, the same proportion as last year with a total of 32 more female self-made billionaires at 184 up from 152.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report said:

The world today has the best part of 6,000 US dollar billionaires, assuming that for every one we found, we have probably at least one if not more, particularly from the Gulf states.”

A boom in China, a weak dollar and a 26% hike in Nasdaq have led to a surge in dollar billionaires across the world. The US dollar depreciated 16% against the Euro, 12% against the British Pound, 10% against the Chinese Yuan and 6% against the Indian Rupee. Global economic growth was at 3% last year, the fastest rate since 2011 and a significant acceleration compared with 2.4% the previous year.

Here’s which countries are home to the most billionaires

[visualizer id=”149420″]

Hurun pulled out some interesting stats from its report:

  • The Olympian Billionaires. Agnete Kirk Thinggaard ($3 billion) is a Danish Olympic dressage rider, who represented Denmark at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where she finished 26th in the individual and 6th in the team competition.
  • The oldest on the list is Chee Chen Tung of Johnson Electric aged 100.
  • Michael Jordan, majority owner of Charlotte Bobcats, ranked 2361, led the USA men’s basketball team to gold medals in two Olympics in 1984 and 1992 respectively.
  • Ion Tiriac, national hero in Romania ranked 2361 Hurun Global Rich List represented Romanian ice hockey team in 1964 Winter Olympics. He also won French Open in men’s doubles grand slam title, the 1970.
  • Divorce: London divorce court ruled in favour of Tatiana Akhmedova, entitling her of 41.5 percent share of Farkhad Akhmedov’s $1.8 billion. Farkhad has not settled yet.
  • 57% of billionaires derived their wealth from listed companies
  • In trouble with the law. Huang Guangyu of GoMe is in jail in China. Nirav Modi from India is under investigation for a $2 billion suspected scam. Xiao Jianhua of Tomorrow Holdings is under house arrest in China.
  • Last year 27 billionaires died, up eight the year before. Between them, they passed down $156 billion. The youngest was Kone Corporation’s Niklas Herlin, aged 53. Average age of death was 83.