The World's Billionaires

 Each year, Forbes employs a team comprising more than 50 reporters from various countries to keep track of the activities of the world's wealthiest individuals[6as well as groups and families that are able to share their wealth. The preliminary surveys are sent out to people who could be eligible to be on the list. According to Forbes, they received three kinds of responses: certain people attempt to increase their wealth, others cooperate but leave out details, and some refuse to answer any questions Business deals are then scrutinized and estimates of the value of assets such as land, homes, vehicles artwork etc. are calculated. Interviews are conducted to verify the figures and increase the estimation of an individual's assets. Positions in publicly traded stocks are priced to the market around one month prior to the publication date. Privately owned businesses are priced based on the prevailing price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios. Known debt is subtracted from assets to arrive at the final figure of an individual's worth in United States dollars. Since the price of stocks fluctuates rapidly the individual's amount of wealth and rank at the time of publication might differ from the situation at the time the list was made