Los Angeles, March 10:

There was good news for rich people when an annual listing of the world’s billionaires showed there were more of them than ever.

The 793 billionaires making the 2006 list published by Forbes magazine is an increase of 102 on last year. And the rich keep getting richer, with their total net worth up 18per cent since March last year. The combined value of their billions is calculated at $2.6 trillion, a fraction less than the US federal government’s entire budget proposal for next year.

Microsoft chief Bill Gates maintains his position as the world’s richest man for the 12th consecutive year. His fortune is estimated at $50 billion, a billion dollars for each year of his life. Languishing behind him is the 75-year-old American investment sage, Warren Buffett, with $42 billion to his name.

It was a good year for American billionaires. If you live in the US you are more likely to have a billionaire as a neighbour than anywhere else in the world. Of the almost 800 names on the list, 371 are from the US, an increase of 30 on last year.

The next most favoured nation is Germany, home to 55 of Europe’s 196 billionaires. The favourite city of the ultra-rich is New York, where 40 of them live. London is home to 23.

There are familiar and unfamiliar names on the list. Ingvar Kamprad may not be a household name, but it is more than likely that you have something made by the world’s fourth richest man in your home.

His Ikea home furnishing chain has given the 79-year-old Swede a net worth of $28 billion, just behind Mexican telecom entrepreneur Carlos Slim Helu’s $30 billion. Roman Abramovich, the owner of Ch-elsea football club is estimated to be worth is $18.2 billion.

There are just 78 women on the list, an increase of 10 from a year ago. But the youngest person on the list is a woman, 22-year-old Hind Hariri, the daughter of the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon.