Carlos Slim tops Bill Gates as No.1 richest in world

Of the 97 billionaires making their debut on the Forbes list, 62 are from Asia, while for the first time China is now home to the most billionaires outside of the United States.

"The United States still dominates, but the United States is lagging," Forbes said. "It is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back."

"The global boom that we experienced from the early 80s ... which was temporarily derailed in 2007, now looks like it is beginning to get back on track. But Asia and a handful of others are surging, relatively the United States and Western Europe are lagging."

The top homes to billionaires are New York with 60 and Moscow with 50, followed by London with 32.

There are 55 countries represented on the Forbes list with billionaires from Pakistan -- clothing exporter Mian Muhammad Mansha -- and Finland -- manufacturing mogul Antti Herlin -- making an appearance for the first time, while Turkey, Russia and India regained billionaire numbers lost last year.

There were 164 billionaires returning to the list in 2010, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is also the world's youngest with a US$4 billion fortune at the age of 25.

The second-youngest self-made billionaire is Japan's Yoshikazu Tanaka, 33, who made US$1.4 billion from social networking firm Gree. The oldest is 99-year-old Walter Haefner from Switzerland who has US$3.3 billion.

The sixth-richest man is Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison with US$28 billion. At No. 7 is the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods group LVMH, who has a fortune of US$27.5 billion.

While Gates's and Buffett's fortunes far exceed most others in the top 10, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said their fortunes would be far greater if they hadn't given away a lot of their money.

"They would be far richer today if it wasn't for their tremendous philanthropy," he said. "Buffett would be worth at least US$55 billion ... and Gates' net worth would exceed US$80 billion had it not been for his philanthropy."

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