The number of billionaires in the UK has increased to 32 with the Duke of Westminster Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor again named the country’s richest man.

Despite the property slump, the 59-year-old landowner increased his worth to 13 billion dollars  - but still only managed 57th on the Forbes global rich list.

The Birmingham Post revealed in its Rich List in January this year that there were four billionaires from the West Midlands – Kirsty Bertarelli, John Caudwell, Sir Anthony Bamford and Viscount Portman.

The world’s richest man according to the Forbes list was Mexican Telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, who topped the list for a second year and increased his wealth by 20.5 billion dollars to 74 billion dollars.

Microsoft boss Bill Gates was second with 56 billion dollars and investor Warren Buffett was third with 50 billion dollars.
The UK has three more billionaires than last year.

Property tycoons David and Simon Reuben were second on the UK rich list with 8 billion dollars, followed by high street mogul Sir Philip Green with 7.2 billion dollars.

The Reubens were placed 114th overall while Green was 132nd.

Virgin boss Richard Branson, landowner Charles Cadogan and Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone were next, each with a fortune of 4.2 billion dollars.

The UK top 10 also featured Barclay brothers, David and Frederick, with a 3.2 billion dollar fortune.

And other UK billionaires included Harry Potter author JK Rowling who is worth one billion dollars and has been on the list for a number of years.

The richest UK resident was Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who was sixth richest in the world, with a 31.1 billion dollar fortune.

There were six “Facebook billionaires” on the global list, including founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, as well as the world’s youngest billionaire Dustin Moskovitz, who is just 26-years-old, and Napster entrepreneur Sean Parker.

The Forbes 25th list of the richest people on the planet saw the number of billionaires increase by 214 to a record 1,210, with an average net worth of 3.7 billion dollars each.

For the first time in more than a decade, the number of billionaires in Asia (332) was more than Europe (300), while the US continued to have the most billionaires, with 413.

China, which has the world’s second largest economy after the US, had 115 billionaires, while Russia had 101 billionaires.

Moscow was home to more billionaires than any other city in the world, with 79 of the world’s wealthiest people choosing to live in the Russian capital.

Europe’s richest person was Frenchman Bernard Arnault, of luxury brand group LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), who moved into fourth spot overall with a fortune of 41 billion dollars.

There were 300 European billionaires, 50 more than last year, with 72% self-made.

And although most managed to increase their wealth last year, not everybody did.

Ikea Founder Ingvar Kamprad was the year’s biggest loser, dropping 151 places to 162 with his fortune plunging from 23 billion dollars to six billion dollars.

The full list is available at www.forbes.com/billionaires.