Oxfam's Global Inequality Report

In January 2026, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, we released our paper ‘Resisting the Rule of the Rich. Protecting freedom from billionaire power’.

The 2026 paper focuses on how the super-rich use their extreme wealth to buy politics, media and justice to defend their own fortunes, dismantle and destroy progressive policies, and strip away our basic civil and political rights.

Globally, billionaire wealth rose by more than 16% in 2025, reaching a record $18.3 trillion. This growth was three times faster than the average annual increase over the previous five years. And since 2020, billionaire wealth has grown by 81%.

In the UK, the richest 56 people now hold more wealth than 27 million combined – highlighting just how concentrated wealth is.

These stats, whilst still shocking, are simply an update from previous years. We know it’s getting worse – so what’s new? This year, we talk about how people with extreme amounts of wealth are buying politics to shape the world to benefit themselves, leaving everyone else to cope with less and less.

Here is a short extract from the report:

The number of billionaires has surpassed 3,000 for the first time, and the level of billionaire wealth is now higher than at any time in history. In October 2025, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, became the first person to have wealth over half a trillion dollars. Meanwhile, one in four people globally face hunger.

It is one thing for a billionaire to buy an enormous yacht or many luxury homes around the world, and this excessive consumption can rightly be criticised in a deeply unequal world where the majority have very little. A world that can also not afford the carbon that comes with this excessive consumption. But many others would reject this criticism, describing it as the politics of envy.

Yet far fewer people would disagree that when a billionaire uses their wealth to buy a politician, to influence a government, to own a newspaper or a social media platform, or to out-lawyer any opposition to ensure them impunity from justice, that these actions are inimical to progress and fairness. Such power gives billionaires a grasp over all our futures, undermining political freedom and eroding the rights of the many.

Inequality isn’t going to be solved overnight. At Oxfam, we think that taxing the super-rich is the start of ending this shocking spiral – stopping the super-rich from getting richer and helping to consolidate their power.