- Stephen Rubin, who made his fortunes through sportswear, is worth $3bn
- Founder of The Range and the boss of Home Bargains also now on list
- Other Britons include property mogul and textiles tsar who provides to Gap
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates topped list for 16th year, worth $72.9bn
- List also saw record number of women among world's 1,826 billionaires
The number of British billionaires on the Forbes rich list has risen to 53, with the chiefs of Home Bargains, Monster energy drinks and The Range among six new UK entries.
Stephen Rubin, the brand owner of various sportswear companies including Speedo, was the highest-ranking British newcomer on the list, with a net worth of $3billion (£1.95bn).
Hilton Schlosberg, the boss of Monster energy drinks and Chris Dawson, who owns The Range, also gained a spot on the list, with a net worth of $1.4bn and $1bn respectively.
Stephen Rubin, the brand owner of Speedo (left), and Chris Dawson, who owns The Range, make up two of the new British entries on the Forbes Rich List
Property mogul Christos Lazari (left) who owns commercial and residential property in Mayfair, Baker Street and Tottenham Court Road, is worth around £2.1bn, while textiles tsar Kenneth Lo (right) is worth £1.4bn
Other British newcomers include retailer Tom Morris, who founded Home Bargains in 1976 and is now worth £1.7bn, and property mogul Christos Lazari, who owns acres of commercial and residential property in Mayfair, Baker Street and Tottenham Court Road. He is worth around £2.1bn.
Textiles boss Kenneth Lo, who is worth $1.4bn, also entered the list for the first time. He runs Crystal Group with his wife Yvonne, a company makes clothes for companies such as Uniqlo, Gap and Wal-Mart.
The Hinduja brothers, who control the London-based Hinduja Group, are the wealthiest Britons on the list with a net worth of $15billion, or £9.76bn. They are ranked number 16.
The magazine said it calculated each person’s wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates on February 13.
THE NEW BRITISH BILLIONAIRES
Stephen Rubin - Pentland Group, $3bn (#603)
Christos Lazari - property developer, $2.1bn (#894)
Tom Morris - Home Bargains, £1.7bn (#1118)
Hilton Schlosberg - Monster energy drinks, $1.4bn (#1386)
Kenneth Lo - Crystal Group, $1.4bn (#1324)
Chris Dawson -The Range, $1bn (#1741)
In total, there were 1,826 billionaires this year, up from 1,645 in 2014.
And the world's richest person got even richer. Bill Gates's net worth rose to $79.2 billion in 2015 from $76 billion last year.
The Microsoft co-founder's fortune increased $3.2 billion - despite a $1.5 billion gift of Microsoft shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November.
That put him at the top of the magazine's list for 16 of the last 21 years.
In second place is telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu, with a net worth of $77.1bn. He had topped the list in 2013.
Next is investor Warren Buffett, who moved up one slot this year with a net worth of $72.7billion.
In fourth was Amancio Ortega, founder of the Inditex fashion group that includes Zara clothing retail shops. He counts a fortune of $64.5 billion.
Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, 24, is the world's youngest billionaire (left). The world's youngest female billionaire is Elizabeth Holmes, 31, the head of blood-testing firm Theranos (right)
Seven of the richest people in the world are from the U.S. Completing the top ten is Helu, of Mexico, Amancio Ortega of Spain who built his wealth with retail chain Zara and French L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
The biggest loser worldwide was Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, who saw his fortune drop from a net worth of $25billion (£16.26bn) to $14.7bn (£9.56billion).
The number of Russian billionaires on the list also plummeted from 111 to 28, while Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also dropped out, in the wake of controversial military intervention.
But there was a record number of 197 women on the list, up from 172 last year.
They include Walmart’s Christy and Alice Walton, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and the chocolate industry’s Jacqueline Mars.
THE WORLD'S WEALTHIEST PEOPLE UNDER 40
1. Mark Zuckerberg, 30 - Facebook ($33.4bn)
2. Dustin Moskovitz, 30 - Facebook ($7.9bn)
3. Elizabeth Holmes, 31 - blood-testing ($4.5bn)
4. Tom Persson, 30 - H&M ($3bn)
5. Julio Mario Santo Domingo, III, 29 - beer ($2.2bn)
6. Tatiana Casiraghi, 31 - beer ($2.2bn)
7. Nathan Blecharczyk, 31 - Airbnb ($1.9bn)
8. Anton Kathrein Jr, 30 - antennas ($1.7bn)
9. Evan Spiegel, 24 - Snapchat ($1.5bn)
10. Bobby Murphy, 25 - Snapchat ($1.5bn)
The average net worth of a 2015 billionaire was $3.86 billion (£2.51 billion), down $60million from last year.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg jumped five spots to number 16, his first time in the world's 20 richest people.
RICH PICKINGS: THE WORLD'S TOP
1. Bill Gates - Microsoft, $79.2 bn
2. Carlos Slim Helu - telecoms, $77.1 billion
3. Warren Buffet - investor, $72.7 billion
4. Amancio Ortega - Zara, $64.5 billion
5. Larry Ellison - Oracle, $54.3 billion
6. Charles Koch - various, $42.9 billion
6. David Koch - various, $42.9 billion
8. Christy Walton - Walmart, $41.7 billion
9. Jim Walton - Walmart, $40.6 billion
10. Liliane Bettencourt - L'Oreal, $40.1 billion
Jack Ma, whose Alibaba online marketplace made the biggest global IPO ever last year, was ranked among the world's 50 richest people, along with two other Chinese nationals.
Other newcomers included Michael Jordan, who was ranked at number 1,741.
The average net worth of those on the list was $3.86 billion. And those under the age of 40 took up 46 places on the list.
Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, 24, is the world's youngest billionaire while Uber co-founders, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, and their first employee, Ryan Graves, also made up the under-40s group.
The world's youngest female billionaire is Elizabeth Holmes, 31, a Stanford University dropout who is the head of blood-testing firm Theranos.
Then there were those who dropped off the list - 138 people including designer Michael Kors and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The combined wealth of the billionaires club is double the GDP of Germany according to NBC.
Oxfam claims that the world's growing wealth divide could see the world's wealthiest 1 per cent outstripping the other 99 per cent next year.
WORLD'S WEALTHIEST WOMEN (BUT ARE ANY SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES?)
1. Christy Walton, 60, $41.7 billion, Walmart
With wealth inherited from her late husband John, Mrs Walton holds the largest stake of the Walmart empire.
She married the son of Walmart founder Sam. However, the retail heir died when a small plane he was piloting crashed in 2005.
Christy and the rest of the Walton family made headlines after they did not sign on to Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett's pledge to give half their wealth to good causes while they were alive.
The family has given an estimated .04 per cent of their wealth to charity.
2. Liliane Bettencourt, 92, $40.1bn, L'Oreal
The 92-year-old heiress of French cosmetics company L'Oreal suffers from dementia and is no longer involved with running the company.
She inherited her stake from father Eugene Schueller, who first began selling beauty products in the early 20th century.
In the 1950s she married Andre Bettencourt, who also worked at L'Oreal after being involved in a French fascist group that collaborated with Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II.
He died in 2007 after leaving L'Oreal in the midst of revelations about his past.
The years since Ms Bettencourt's retirement have seen her give away large sums of money. There is currently a fraud trial of ten people accused of using her dementia to swindle her out of millions.
3. Alice Walton, 65, $38.6bn, Walmart
Alice Walton also inherited her stake in her father's empire, though she has not been involved in running the business.
She instead chooses to devote her time, energy and vast financial resources to art, building a 200,000-square-foot museum filled with modern works in northwest Arkansas, according to Forbes.
Though her primary residence is a horse ranch in Texas, she also owns two floors on Park Avenue where protesters demanded higher wages for her company's workers last year.
4. Jacqueline Mars, 75, $27bn, Mars Inc
Life for Jacqueline Mars has always been pretty sweet.
She inherited $26.8billion from the company which bears her name after her grandfather started the business at the turn of the last century.
She shares the company evenly with her two brothers, Forrest Jr. and John.
5. Maria Franca Fissolo, 97, $23.4bn, Nutella & chocolates
The widow of Michele Ferrero, who built Ferrero Group with its iconic Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Nutella spread. Mr Ferrero died in February 2014. He had taken over his father Pietro's business which started in Italy during the Second World War from his wife's pastry shop.
Laur2013), inherited shares of Apple from late husband Steve
6. Laurene Powell Jobs, 51, $19.5bn, Apple
Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, inherited the majority of her wealth from her stake in Apple and Disney.
The graduate of Stanford Business School keeps busy with her own set of initiatives, including running the Emerson Collective, which fosters entrepreneurship for the underprivileged and advocates for education reform. The businesswoman is also on the Board of Trustees at Stanford.
Though she generally keeps a low-profile, the widow was recently spotted on a Caribbean vacation with former Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, 44. The pair are believed to have been dating since 2013.
7. Anne Cox Chambers, 95, $17bn, Cox
The only media mogul among the world's wealthiest women, Anne Cox Chamber's inherited her stake in various Cox media ventures from her father James.
A vast information empire, Mrs Cox Chambers has shares in companies including Cox Communications cable company, Kelley Blue Book automotive reselling manual and many local television and radio stations.
She has remained active in various affairs beyond her father's businesses, however.
The heiress served as ambassador to Belgium during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and was the first woman member of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
7. Susanne Klatten, 52, $16.8bn, BMW
Susanne Klatten, 52, began working for her father Herbert Quandt's company under an alias before marrying an engineer and inheriting her wealth.
She also owns stakes in a wind turbine company, Nordex, and chemical company Altana.
The mogul earned a bachelors at University of Buckingham in England, an MBA in Switzerland and has three children.
8. Johanna Quandt, 88, $13.9bn, BMW
Susanne Klatten's mother Johanna Quandt, 88, was Herbert Quandt's third wife after working as a secretary for the automaker.
Beyond a large stake of the car manufacturer, which makes vehicles including Minis and Rolls-Royces, she also controls part of a security software company based in the Netherlands.
Both parents of Mrs Quandt were art historians. She now lives in the German spa town of Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt.
Neither Mrs Quandt or Mrs Klatten have ever sold a share of Herbert Quandt's company.
9. Iris Fontbona, 72, $13.5bn, various ventures
Chilean Iris Fontbona, 72, inherited her wealth from her influential family as well as from a marriage to Andrónico Luksic.
Her assorted business interests include Chile's largest brewer and a resort in Croatia. The Luksics make investment decisions collectively.
Source: Forbes
