We visualised the wealth of Europe’s richest and researched how they influence politics.
Producer: Philippe Kramer
Cover story: Julius E. O. Fintelmann and Philippe Kramer
Journalists: Agata Pyka, Alexandra Drugescu-Radulescu, Amalie Holmgaard Mersh, Ana Kakalashvili, Ana Repáraz Lipperheide, Anđela Šikić, Astrid Söderström, Ata Ahmet Kökçü, Belle de Jong, Cameron MacBride, Ciara Boulman, Claudia Tschabuschnig, Cristina Gallego, Danielius Bawah, Dennis van der Laan, Đorđe Kuzmanović, Eli Volencova, Eliška Drobná, Elsie Haldane, Emily Mirelle Vutt, Eva van Zanten, Felicia Larsson, Fiona O'Hara, Francisca Valentim, Franziska Peschel, Fruzsina Szikszai, George Banos, Giacomo Fracassi, Ingrid Edvardsen, Jakub Roubíček, Jacob Perkins, Johanna Sahlberg, Julia Merk, Julianne van Pelt, Juliette Ovigneur, Katarina Spisak, Liene Lūsīte, Lukas Siebeneicker, Ludovica Di Meco, Marco Németh, Marko Milikić, Marta Casares-Lara, Matej Simič, Max Ernst, Melissa Martinsen Kinneberg, Mikael Kataja, Mila Taylor, Mustafa Mujkic, Nathan Domon, Nerses Hovsepyan, Niina Leppilahti, Nikola Veisberga, Nina Kaufmann, Piotr Drabik, Rabia Hale Seferoglu, Saara Saskia Sutt, Sofia Guimarães, Sofia Turati, Sofie Rønnelund, Sofiya Tryzub-Cook, Stefano de Marzo, Teresa Turkheimer, Theodosia Italou, Theresa Adelmann, Tomás Pires, Zoé Gáspár
Editors: Abhishek Kumar, Amir Hashemi, Amalie Holmgaard Mersh, Angelos Apallas, Eli Volencova, Julius E. O. Fintelmann, Liene Lūsīte, Martina Monti, Max Ernst, Nathan Domon, Sara Curic, Sofiya Tryzub-Cook, Tim Kohnen, Zoé Gáspár
Visualisation and web development: Philippe Kramer
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Hint: The richest person in Europe is from France.
This entire green bar represents euros.→
Firstname Lastname.
Lastname's fortune is estimated to be ~WEALTH euros.
euros
While often hailed as a "self-made man," Arnault's rise is a combination of shrewd business strategy and his grasp of the system. On the other hand, he became CEO at 27 thanks to his father, and he acquired the Boussac group, the owner of Christian Dior, thanks to enormous subsidies from the state, financial aid from oil companies and banks, and his small family fortune. The European Commission later classified these state subsidies as distorting competition between member states.
The median wage in Europe is 1500 euros. Pick the option that is closest to your salary.
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To become as rich as the Firstname Lastname, you would have to work for
10'000 years
However, you’d need to save all the money. No spending on food or rent.
Not just once but more than X times.
The production of the megahit film Barbie cost around 150 million euros.
Not even three percent of Europe’s population are millionaires. Only 592 people in Europe are billionaires, according to Forbes.
Giving an extra euros to every teacher in the country would only take up half of the Firstname Lastname's wealth.
The recent Wealth Inequality Report highlights stark differences between the world’s regions. The top one percent owns around half of the wealth in Central Asia and Latin America. There, the bottom fifty percent barely holds one percent of wealth.
If you combine the wealth of the three richest people of the 40 European countries that are part of this investigation, you arrive at a combined wealth of over 1,500,000,000,000 euros.
This is more than the entire EU budget.
We deserve a real debate about wealth inequality. For that, we need to understand how rich the richest really are and how they shape our world.
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Everything you need to know about European politics, history, and culture in 11 minutes.
Our local journalists from across Europe tell you what an exceptionally well-informed friend would tell you: Only the most important and interesting stories from their country. Are you interested?
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Continue reading about Europe’s richest
We profiled the richest people in Europe and how they are tied to politics.
〉To the detailed profiles
The patterns behind the individuals: How does wealth get translated into power? How did they become so rich?
〉Read our overview
Another fact about Europe's richest: They don't pay us. And we want to keep it that way.
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