According to the Hurun Report, there are 2,694 billionaires in the world, that is 437 more than the last year.
"A boom in China, a weak dollar and a 26% hike in Nasdaq have led to a surge in dollar billionaires across the world," Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman, and Chief Researcher.
Four of the top 10 richest self-made women in the world are from China and 28 of the 50 women listed.
Zhou Qunfei, the founder of a major smartphone screen maker, Lens Technology, is the world's richest self-made woman, with $9.8 billion in contracts with Apple and Samsung. According to the Forbes list of the World's Billionaires, she is in 198th place with $7.8 billion. She reportedly lost her mother as a child and quit school at the age of 16 to work.
Yajun beat out another female developer, Chen Lihua who topped the self-made female rich list in 2017, shifted to third place after her fortune grew only slightly from $7.2 billion to $8.1 billion last year. Beijing-born Lihua governs the investment company FuWah and is married to popular Chinese TV star Chi Zhongrui.
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Women occupied 15% of the 2018 Global Rich List, the same proportion as last year with a total of 32 more female self-made billionaires with 184, up from 152, according to the Hurun researchers.
