Statista

Elon Musk has topped the Forbes 400 2024 list of the richest people in America, published Tuesday. The 53-year-old Tesla and SpaceX cofounder was reported to have a net worth amounting to $244 billion, as of September 1. Musk has some $47 billion more than the second richest person in the United States, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (60), who owns $197 billion. Rounding off the top five are Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (40) with $181 billion, software giant Oracle founder Larry Ellison (80) with $175 billion and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett (94) with $150 billion. While a gender divide still exists among the U.S.’ wealthiest, with the first of the country’s richest women coming in 15th place on the list, several women are still making extremely high figures. Walmart’s Alice Walton (74) tops the women’s roundup, with a net worth of $89.2 billion in 2024. She is followed by Julia Koch (62) of Koch Industries with $74.2 billion, who alongside her three children inherited a 42 percent stake from her late husband, David. Jacqueline Mars (84), who owns an estimated one-third of the candy, food and pet care firm Mars, then ranks third place for richest women and 19th place for richest Americans with $47.6 billion. According to Forbes, the top 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. are worth a combined $5.4 trillion. Of these, the top 25 are worth roughly $2.5 trillion altogether. Analysts highlight that each of the top 25 are an average of 31 percent richer than last year.

In 2023, the commodity trade relationship between the United States and India focused on precious metals, fuels and electrical machinery, according to UN Comtrade data. 35 percent of Indian exports to the U.S. and 41 percent of India's U.S. imports fell in these categories. Even with China becoming the most important trade partner for the South Asian country in the past year, India only exhibits a trade surplus with the United States out of its top trading partners. 27 percent or $11 billion of the total U.S. exports to India were from the mineral fuels segment, chief among them crude oil, anthracite coal and natural gas in terms of commodity value. Looking at imports from India by the United States, crude oil plays a major role, coming in second overall with $6.4 billion. Other relevant goods exported by India include pharmaceutical products for therapeutical use ($7.2 billion), crustaceans ($1.8 billion) and insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and disinfectants ($929 million). The trade relationship between India and the United States came into closer focus recently, with Reuters reporting suggesting that the two countries are likely to sign a cooperation agreement on the topic of critical minerals like lithium "which intends to enhance bilateral collaboration to increase and diversify essential critical mineral supply chains and leverage their complementary strengths". Since President Joe Biden took office, India and the U.S. intensified trade. The value of bilateral goods trade increased by 45 percent from 2020 to 2021 despite macroeconomic pressure due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

New analysis by the Tax Justice Network has revealed the United Kingdom to be the biggest enabler of corporate tax dodging in the world. As this infographic shows, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies dominate the top eight roundup of places allowing multinationals to avoid paying tax on their profits. In total, this makes the UK responsible for about one third of global tax avoidance risk. EU countries are also responsible for a third of corporate tax abuse risk, whereas African nations are responsible for just four percent of corporate tax abuse risks and Latin America for only three percent. Among the countries to have performed worse than before are Brazil, Poland and Mexico. Ireland entered the top ten list for the first time in 2024 with an index value of 1,622, ranking in ninth place. It is followed by Luxembourg (1,480) and then the Bahamas, the latter of which is an independent member of the British commonwealth but not an OT or CD. In position 12 comes the Isle of Man and in 13 comes Guernsey, both Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom places in 18th position with a value of 894. According to the Tax Justice Network, about half a trillion dollars are lost to tax havens per year. The index evaluates jurisdiction laws and monitors the volume of corporate financial activity entering and leaving jurisdictions. A Haven Score is determined by more than 70 questions under 18 indicators to find the extent to which a jurisdiction’s laws and regulations allow for corporate tax abuse. The outcome of these indicators are then combined with global scale weights, which are based on IMF data on foreign direct investments. The final figure is a measure of the contribution of each jurisdiction to the global problem of corporate tax abuse.

Statista and TIME have published their second edition of the World’s Best Companies! 1,000 awardees were recognized in a ranking after an in-depth analysis across the three dimensions “Revenue Growth”, “Employee Satisfaction” and “Sustainability Transparency”. The ranking gives guidance to employees, customers and business partners all over the world and celebrates the companies that are awarded in 19 diverse industries. More information can be found here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dFWdPvm5 Apple Accenture Microsoft BMW Group Amazon

Increasing awareness levels regarding issues such as climate change and animal welfare, along with other factors such as personal health, are continuing to drive people to embrace veganism. Once a fringe movement, it is now firmly mainstream, something that is being reflected by increasing vegan options in restaurants and supermarkets. Some cities are more vegan-friendly than others and a recent report shows the places that have the most options for people on a plant-based diet. The Vegan Word conducted an analysis of vegan listings website Happycow and came up with a list of the cities with the most vegan restaurants per 100,000 inhabitants as of December 2023. Asian tourist hotspots ranked highest, with Phuket, Ubud on the Indonesian island of Bali and Chiang Mai in Thailand making up the top three. Two U.S. cities - Portland, Oregon and Atlanta, Georgia - as well as three European cities - including the English seaside resort Brighton, Dutch capital Amsterdam and Portuguese capital of Lisbon - also rank among the top eight. The makers of the study acknowledge that theirs isn't the only way to measure how vegan-friendly food options are in a given city, as the methodology doesn't capture vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants as well as the general suitedness of different local cuisines for vegans. They note how vegan-friendly cities such as London are notably missing, due not to a lack of vegan restaurants but to particularly large populations.

The rise of physical music sales, especially vinyl, reflects a renewed interest in owning music in a tangible form. Despite streaming's dominance, formats like vinyl, cassettes, and CDs appeal to fans seeking nostalgia, high-quality sound, and a more personal connection to music. Limited-edition releases, exclusive artwork, and the desire to support artists directly have fueled this trend. The pandemic further boosted interest, as people found comfort in collecting albums. This resurgence highlights a growing appreciation for curated, tactile music experiences in a digital age.

The smart home market is rapidly expanding as more consumers embrace connected devices for convenience, security, and energy efficiency. Innovations in AI, IoT, and home automation are driving growth, making smart homes more accessible and integrated into everyday life. Homeowners are looking for solutions that can be easily integrated into their existing homes and controlled remotely through their smartphones or voice assistants. For more market insights click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/es8AP-wv

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According to official OECD - OCDE data, Iceland had the highest labor participation rate of all OECD countries, with 86.6 percent, followed by the Netherlands and Sweden. An analysis of the development of this indicator in the countries with the highest and lowest rates in 2022 shows that it is highly susceptible to fluctuations, although, on average, the rate has increased across all OECD countries. In 1993, for example, the Netherlands’ labor participation rate, defined as the share of the working population among all 15- to 64-year-olds in a country, stood below 70 percent, while those of Iceland and Sweden were already at 80 percent. This shifted dramatically in the 2000s, with rates in the Netherlands increasing by ten percent between 2004 and 2022. Looking at the countries with the lowest labor participation rates in 2022, Turkey stands out. While Mexico and Italy managed to keep this indicator above 63 percent for the majority of the 2010s, Turkey’s labor participation rate dropped below fifty percent in 2004 and stood at 59 percent in 2022.  This can be explained by the comparatively low share of women in the labor force. According to the working paper Drivers of Low Female Labor Force Participation in Türkiye by Tuğçe Tatoğlu published by the research branch of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, the rate for women stood at 35 percent compared to 70 percent for men, even though half of Turkey’s population was female as of 2022. This is likely traceable to the high amount of unpaid care work Turkish women are expected to provide. Contrary to unemployment numbers, the labor participation rate also measures people who want to work but have stopped looking, people who are actively looking for work, as well as those currently working a job. A variety of factors can influence this indicator, among them economic recession, the number of wealthy people not needing to work per country, global events like the coronavirus pandemic, or an increase in college attendance leading to fewer people starting their work lives early. 

World Tourism Day, celebrated annually on September 27, aims to highlight the importance of tourism in shaping global culture and economies. It also emphasizes the need for sustainable travel. This benefits both local communities and travelers. Let's have a look at some statistics.