1 The Walton family America Retailing (Wal-Mart) £42.6bn £45.1bn

2 Bill Gates America Software (Microsoft) £28.7bn £28.6bn

3 Carlos Slim Helu Mexico Telecoms £27.2bn £17.2bn

4 Warren Buffett America Investments £26.7bn £24bn

5 Mukesh & Anil Ambani India Petrochemicals £19.6bn £8.2bn

6 Karl & Theo Albrecht* Germany Supermarkets £19.2bn £18.4bn

7 Lakshmi Mittal UK Steel £19.2bn £14.9bn

8 Ingvar Kamprad Sweden Retailing (Ikea) £16.9bn £16bn

9 Forrest & John Mars* America Confectionery £16.1bn £17.2bn

10 Sheldon Adelson America Casinos £13.6bn £9.2bn

11 King Abdullah Saudi Arabia Oil £13.5bn £13.4bn

12 Bernard Arnault France Luxury goods £13.3bn £12.3bn

13 Barbara Cox Anthony & Anne Cox Chambers America Media £12.9bn £14.2bn

14 Sultan of Brunei Brunei Oil £12.4bn £12.4bn

15= Charles & David Koch America Oil services £12.3bn £13.7bn

15= Amancio Ortega Spain Fashion £12.3bn £8.5bn

17 Johanna Quandt* Germany Cars (BMW) £12.2bn £11.9bn

18 Li Ka-shing Hong Kong Industry £11.8bn £10.7bn

19= The Pritzker family America Hotels, investments £11.3bn £10.6bn

19= David Thomson++ Canada Media, oil £11.3bn £11.2bn

21 Larry Ellison America Computers (Oracle) £11bn £9.1bn

22 Roman Abramovich UK Oil, industry £10.8bn £10.8bn

23 Liliane Bettencourt France Cosmetics £10.6bn £9.1bn

24 Abigail & Edward Johnson America Investments £10.5bn £10.9bn

25= Prince Alwaleed Saudi Arabia Investments £10.4bn £11.5bn

25= Stefan & Liselott Persson Sweden Retailing £10.4bn £7bn

25= The Sawiris family Egypt Telecoms, construction £10.4bn £4.3bn

28 The Brenninkmeyer family Holland Retailing £10.2bn £7.1bn

29 Paul Allen America Software (Microsoft) £9.2bn £12.6bn

30 The Mulliez family France Retailing £9bn £6.9bn

31= Lee Shau Kee Hong Kong Property £8.8bn £6.3bn

31= Azim Premji India Software £8.8bn £7.6bn

33 The Herz family Germany Coffee £8.6bn £7.4bn

34= Sergey Brinn America Internet (Google) £8.5bn £7.3bn

34= The Oeri/Hoffmann family Switzerland Pharmaceuticals £8.5bn £6.8bn

34= Larry Page America Internet (Google) £8.5bn £7.3bn

37= Sulaiman Bin Abdul Al Rajhi* Saudi Arabia Banking £8.1bn £13.5bn

37= Michael Dell America Computers (Dell) £8.1bn £9.8bn

39= Steve Ballmer America Software (Microsoft) £7.7bn £7.8bn

39= Kirk Kerkorian America Investments £7.7bn £5bn

39= The Kwok brothers Hong Kong Property £7.7bn £6.6bn

42= Suleiman Kerimov Russia Finance £7.4bn £4.1bn

42= Francois Pinault France Luxury goods £7.4bn £4bn

44= Vladimir Lisin Russia Steel £7.3bn £6.1bn

44= Samuel & Donald Newhouse America Publishing £7.3bn £8.6bn

46 The Bass family America Oil £7.2bn £5bn

47 Jack Taylor America Car rentals £7.1bn New entry

48 Duke of Westminster UK Property £7bn £6.6bn

49= Vladimir Potanin Russia Metals £6.9bn New entry

49= Mikhail Prokhorov Russia Metals £6.9bn £3.9bn

51= Oleg Deripaska Russia Industry £6.8bn £4.5bn

51= Michael Otto Germany Mail order £6.8bn £5.9bn

53 Carl Icahn America Finance £6.7bn £5bn

54 Adolf Merckle Germany Pharmaceuticals £6.6bn £6.6bn

55 Mikhail Fridman Russia Oil, banking £6.5bn £5.5bn

56 Vagit Alekperov Russia Oil £6.3bn £6.3bn

57 Sri & Gopi Hinduja UK Industry, finance £6.2bn £3.6bn

58 Silvio Berlusconi Italy Media £6bn £6.3bn

59= Nasser al-Kharafi* Kuwait Construction £5.9bn £7.1bn

59= Leonardo Del Vecchio Italy Eyewear £5.9bn £5.7bn

61 David Khalili UK Art, property £5.8bn New entry

62= Luciano Benetton* Italy Fashion £5.7bn £5.8bn

62= Alexei Mordashov Russia Industry £5.7bn £4.3bn

64= Spiro Latsis* Greece Shipping £5.6bn £5.2bn

64= Birgit Rausing* Switzerland Industry £5.6bn £4.9bn

66= Alicia & Esther Koplowitz Spain Construction, finance £5.4bn £2.8bn

66= Hans Rausing and family UK Packaging £5.4bn £4.9bn

68 Viktor Vekselberg Russia Oil, metals £5.3bn £5.7bn

69= Micky & Shari Arison America/Israel Cruise line, gambling £5.2bn £6.5bn

69= Charles & Rupert Johnson America Finance £5.2bn £4.4bn

71= Serge Dassault* France Aerospace £5.1bn £4.9bn

71= Charles Ergen America Satellite TV £5.1bn £3.9bn

71= Michele Ferrero* Italy Chocolates £5.1bn £5.7bn

71= Kushal Pal Singh India Property £5.1bn New entry

71= Alain & Gerard Wertheimer France Fashion (Chanel) £5.1bn £4.3bn

76= Sir Philip and Lady Green UK Retailing (Bhs, Arcadia) £4.9bn £4.9bn

76= Philip Knight America Footwear (Nike) £4.9bn £4.2bn

76= Sunil Mittal* India Telecoms £4.9bn New entry

79 The Fentener Van Vlissingen Family Holland Energy, retailing £4.8bn £4.6bn

80= John Kluge America Media, phones £4.7bn £5.1bn

80= Thomas & Stephan Schmidheiny Switzerland Construction £4.7bn £2.5bn

80= Vladimir Yevtushenkov Russia Telecoms £4.7bn £4.2bn

83= Rupert Murdoch America Media £4.6bn £3.7bn

83= Joseph & Moise Safra Brazil Finance £4.6bn £4.2bn

83= Reinhold Wurth Germany Industry £4.6bn £4.3bn

86= Ernesto Bertarelli Switzerland Biotechnology £4.5bn £4.1bn

86= The Harari family Lebanon, Saudi Arabia Technology, industry £4.5bn £9.6bn

86= Pierre Omidyar America Internet (Ebay) £4.5bn £5.8bn

86= Maria-Elizabeth & George Schaeffler Germany Ball bearings £4.5bn £3.9bn

90 Rafael del Pino* Spain Construction £4.4bn £3.7bn

91= Donald Bren America Property £4.3bn New entry

91= George Kaiser America Oil, banking £4.3bn New entry

91= George Soros America Finance £4.3bn £4.1bn

91= August von Finck Germany Investments £4.3bn £4bn

91= Nikolai Tsvetkov Russia Oil, gas £4.3bn £3bn

96 Dan Duncan America Oil, gas £4.2bn New entry

97= Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair* UAE Finance £4.1bn £4bn

97= Mohammed Al Amoudi Saudi Arabia Oil £4.1bn £4bn

97= Kumar Birla India Commodities £4.1bn New entry

97= The Hearst family America Media £4.1bn £4.4bn

97= The Johnson family America Flooring £4.1bn £4.5bn

97= German Khan Russia Oil, banking £4.1bn £3.5bn

97= Iskander Makhmudov Russia Mining, metals £4.1bn £2.6bn

97= Shashi & Ravi Ruia India Steel, oil, telecoms £4.1bn New entry

97= Sumner Redstone America Media £4.1bn £4.4bn

97= Andreas & Thomas Strungmann Germany Pharmaceuticals £4.1bn £4.1bn

Source: Sunday Times Rich List 2007, Forbes World Billionaires March 2007, Finans February 2007, Bilan December 2006,