Forbes magazine annually ranks the world’s wealthiest female billionaires. This list uses the static rating published once a year by Forbes, usually in March. There were 244 women listed on the world’s billionaires as of 15 March 2021, up from 234 in March 2021. Since 2021, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is listed as the world’s wealthiest woman.
According to a 2021 billionaire census, women make up 11.9% of the billionaire cohort, and “just over half of all female billionaires are heiresses, with an additional 30% having a combination of inherited and created wealth.” In the overall billionaire cohort, 58% of billionaires are “self-made” and 29.6% gained their wealth through a combination of inheritance and “self-made” wealth.
2021 List
In January 2021, CEOWORLD Magazine announced that if her family’s wealth is included in her total fortune, then Francoise Bettencourt Meyers’s wealth is estimated to stand at $71.4 billion.
The top 10 women billionaires, using the Forbes static ranking as of 15 March 2021, are:
| No. | Name | Image | Birth date | Net worth US$ (billions) |
Citizenship | Source | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 1 |
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers | 10 July 1953 |  76.6 |
 France |
L’Oréal | 12 |
|
| 2 |
Alice Walton |  |
10 July 1949 | 63.5 |
 United States |
Walmart | 16 |
 3 |
MacKenzie Scott | 7 April 1970 | 54.4 |
United States |
Amazon | 23 |
|
| 4 |
Julia Koch |  |
12 April 1962 | 46.4 |
United States |
Koch industries | 30 |
| 5 |
Jacqueline Mars |  |
10 October 1939 | 31.3 |
United States |
Mars, Inc. | 46 |
| 6 |
Yang Huiyan | July 20, 1981 | 30.4 |
 Cyprus |
Country Garden Holdings | 49 |
|
| 7 |
Susanne Klatten |  |
28 April 1962 | 28.1 |
 Germany |
Altana, BMW | 53 |
| 8 |
Gina Rinehart |  |
9 February 1954 | 23.9 |
 Australia |
Hancock Prospecting | 70 |
| 9 |
Iris Fontbona |  |
1942 (age 78–79) | 23.7 |
 Chile |
Antofagasta plc | 72 |
| 10 |
Abigail Johnson |  |
19 December 1961 | 20.9 |
United States |
Fidelity Investments | 83 |