Nine Swedes on Forbes list of billionaires

The Forbes list of billionaires 2005 features nine Swedes. Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad is Sweden’s richest man and among the richest on the planet.

The 78-year-old Ingvar Kamprad has entered the Top-10. The Forbes list of billionaires, published by the American magazine of the same name, is a yearly list of the (now) 691 richest people on earth. Kamprad is currently the sixth richest man on earth with 23 billion dollars.

Sweden has nine billionaires on the list, demonstrating the power of Swedish business.

Second after Kamprad is the 57-year-old Stefan Persson at number 29. Persson – worth 11.2 billion dollars - is head of fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz, which was founded by his father.

Third richest Swede is Hans Rausing (79) who made his money with packaging company Tetra Laval. He is currently at no. 56, worth 8.2 billion dollars. His sister-in-law Birgit Rausing (81) is found at 53, with 7.6 billion dollars.

The remaining five Swedes on the Forbes list are Antonia Johnson (known of the trading company A. Johnson & Co., no. 87 with $ 5.4 bil), Fredrik Lundberg (got rich with real estate and investments, no. 321 with $ 2 bil), Gustaf Douglas (holds stakes in locks producer Assa Abloy and security company Securitas, no. 437 with $ 1.5 bil), Jorgen Philip-Sorensen (former chairman of Group 4 Falck AS, also no. 437 with $ 1.5 bil) and Liselott Persson (sister of Stefan Persson, no. 507 with $ 1.3 bil).

Johnson, Lundberg, Douglas and the Perssons live in Stockholm.

The others have moved abroad to Switzerland (Kamprad, Birgit Rausing) and the UK (Hans Rausing, Philip-Sorensen).

The richest man on the Forbes list of billionaires – and thus the earth - is still Microsoft-founder Bill Gates with 46.5 billion dollars.

With nine Swedes on the Forbes list of billionaires Sweden shows the strength of its economy.