Forbes Rich List: Bill Gates Still At The Top

Bill Gates has been crowned the world's richest man by Forbes for a second consecutive year.

The Microsoft co-founder's net worth rose to $79.2bn (£51.5bn) in 2015, up from $76bn last year, according to the magazine.

The figure put Gates just ahead of Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu, whose net worth was set at $77.1bn.

Gates has topped the Forbes billionaires list 16 times in the last 21 years.

The magazine began compiling the list of the world's richest in 1986. The latest list calculated each person's wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates on 13 February.

Investor Warren Buffett finished third, moving up one spot from last year with a net worth of $72.7bn.

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish co-founder of clothing retail chain Zara, came in fourth with a net worth of $64.5bn, while Oracle Corp founder Larry Ellison rounded out the top five at $54.3bn.

The 2015 list also saw the emergence of 181 new names, raising the total of billionaires to 1,826 at a combined net worth of $7.05trn (£4.5trn).

The number of women on the list also rose to 197 from 172 a year ago.

Christy Walton, the widow of John Walton, a son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was the top-ranked female with a net worth of $41.7bn.

At age 24, Snapchat co-founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel was the list's youngest name. His net worth of $1.5bn was matched by his Snapchat colleague, 25-year-old Bobby Murphy.

Other tech billionaire newcomers were two co-founders of taxi-ordering app Uber and one of its executives. Three co-founders of Airbnb, the vacation-home rental website, also made the list.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan cracked the billionaire list for the first time was well, thanks to his ownership of NBA Charlotte Hornets and payouts from his Nike (Sao Paolo: NIKE34.SA - news) brand.