The world saw a record number of billionaires created last year, with a collective wealth of $18.3tn (\u00a313.7tn), while global efforts stalled in the fight against poverty and hunger.<\/p>\n
Oxfam\u2019s annual survey of global inequality<\/a> has revealed that the number of billionaires surpassed 3,000 for the first time during 2025. Since 2020, their collective wealth grew by 81%, or $8.2tn, which the charity claims would be enough to eradicate global poverty 26 times over.<\/p>\n But the authors reported that most governments were failing ordinary people by capitulating to the increasingly blatant influence of the rich.<\/p>\n Line graph showing rise in billionaires’ wealth since 2014 \u2013 from about $8tn to $18tn<\/a><\/p>\n The past 12 months have seen youth-led uprisings<\/a> against inequality across countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But protests over corruption, austerity, unemployment and high living costs have routinely been ignored and instead harshly put down by governments, said Max Lawson, co-author of the report.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments worldwide are making the wrong choice; choosing to defend wealth, not freedom. Choosing the rule of the rich. Choosing to repress their people\u2019s anger at how life is becoming unaffordable and unbearable, rather than redistributing wealth from the richest to the rest,\u201d said Lawson.<\/p>\n Social justice activist Wanjira Wanjiru in Nairobi\u2019s Mathare slum. \u2018When people are oppressed, they always rebel.\u2019 Photograph: Tony Karumba\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe economically rich are becoming politically rich the world over, able to shape and influence politics, societies and economies,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the past, rich people were perhaps more coy about pulling the levers of power, but it\u2019s becoming more and more brazen, this kind of marriage between money and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n In Kenya<\/a>, the social activist Wanjira Wanjiru said the effects of inequality were most apparent where she worked in Mathare, a slum in Nairobi where many people lacked access to clean water and sanitation facilities but where an adjacent golf club had sprinklers constantly running to maintain the greens and fairways.<\/p>\n Line graph showing billions of people living with moderate or severe food insecurity, rising from about 1.5bn in 2014 to 2.3bn in 2024<\/a><\/p>\n She said the Kenyan government had capitulated to the wealthy in east Africa by imposing austerity measures on education and healthcare<\/a>, while businesses received tax exemptions.<\/p>\n But Wanjiru remained optimistic about there being a backlash against this trend, with younger people, especially those from developing countries, successfully rising up to challenge the influence of the rich over politics, as Kenyans have in protests<\/a> last year and in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually hopeful because the natural reaction will be to force systems to work for the people. We are getting to a point where we really can\u2019t take it any more,\u201d said Wanjiru. \u201cWhen people are oppressed, they always rebel.\u201d<\/p>\n Business and politics mix as leading tech tycoons (from left) Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration. Photograph: Getty<\/p>\n Nepal saw just such an uprising in September 2025<\/a>, with several days of protests driven by anger over corruption leading to the unseating of the government.<\/p>\n