77-year-old Warren Buffett, the chief executive officer of the Berkshire Hathaway company, saw his wealth rise from $52 billion to $62 billion thanks to the rising value of his company’s shares. His increased fortune allowed him to leapfrog Bill Gates and Mexican Carlos Slim Helu to officially become the world’s richest man.

Gates, who has topped Forbes’ billionaire list for the past 13 years, increased his wealth by $2 billion over the past 12 months. But his overall fortune of $58 billion is only good enough for third place on Forbes’ 2008 list of the world's billionaires. Telecoms tycoon Slim Helu’s $60 billion fortune ensured the Microsoft man slipped from first to third.

According to Forbes, 2008 is the first years that the world has over 1,000 billionaires with 1,125 making the grade compared to 946 in 2007. Their total net worth stands at a whopping $4.4 trillion. American remains home to the most billionaires, 469 in total, but Russia has overtaken Germany to claim 2nd place on this list. Forbes also revealed that the world's youngest billionaire is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with $1.5bn to his name.

Britain’s billionaires

Fourth place on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people went to Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. With a fortune of $45 billion, Mittal is also Britain’s richest resident and topped the Sunday Times Rich List last year. He is also the owner of the world’s most expensive house after paying Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone $128 million for his house in Kensington, West London.

Another British resident to make Forbes’ Top 20 was Roman Abramovich. However, the Chelsea owner’s net worth of $23.5 billion was amazingly only good enough for 15th place.