The Forbes World’s Billionaires ranking remains disproportionately male, but the percentage of women among the world’s wealthiest people continues to tick up slowly. This year, 481 of the planet’s 3,428 billionaires are women, accounting for 14% of the list. That’s up from 406 female billionaires, or 13.4% of the ranking last year.

The world’s richest woman for the second straight year is Walmart heiress Alice Walton, who is worth an estimated $134 billion. French L'Oréal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Julia Koch, the widow of industrialist David Koch (d. 2019), still rank second and third, worth an estimated $100 billion and $81.2 billion, respectively.

Candy and pet food heiress Jacqueline Mars ($49.1 billion) fell one spot to No. 5 and was overtaken by Iris Fontbona ($52.6 billion), the Chilean widow of mining and beverage mogul Andrónico Luksic (d. 2005), who jumped from outside the top 10 to No. 4.

The only self-made woman among the 10 richest is Swiss shipping mogul Rafaela Aponte-Diamant ($44.5 billion), who dropped from No. 5 to No. 6. She is the richest of just 122 female billionaires (up from 113 a year ago) who made their own money rather than inheriting it. The next richest self-made woman is American roofing magnate Diane Hendricks ($22.3 billion). Among the most famous self-made women are Beyonce ($1 billion), who is a newcomer to this year’s list and several veterans of the ranking such as Rihanna ($1 billion), Spanx founder Sara Blakely ($1.4 billion) and Taylor Swift ($2 billion).

Another fresh face: Luana Lopes Lara ($1.3 billion), a former ballerina from Brazil who cofounded prediction market firm Kalshi. At age 29, she is now the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, taking the title from 31-year-old Scale AI cofounder Lucy Guo ($1.4 billion), who had taken the title from Swift last April.

Bill Gates’ ex-wife Melinda French Gates ($30.3 billion) and Marilyn Simons ($32.5 billion), the widow of quantitative........

© Forbes