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The richest world leaders of all time: ranked

The wealthiest ever non-royal heads of state and government chiefs
40. Napoléon Bonaparte: $400 million (£318m)
39. Cyril Ramaphosa: $450 million (£355m)
=36. Paul Kagame: $500 million (£395m)
=36. Ilham Aliyev: $500 million (£395m)
=36. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: $500 million (£395m)
35. Uhuru Kenyatta: $530 million (£420m)
34. George Washington: $760 million (£605m)
33. Rishi Sunak: $820 million (£651m)
32. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo: $940 million (£745m)
=29. Nursultan Nazarbayev: $1 billion (£795m)
=29. Islam Karimov: $1 billion (£795m)
=29. Ali Bongo Ondimba: $1 billion (£795m)
28. Fidel Castro: $1.4 billion (£1.1bn)
27. Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby: $1.5 billion (£1.2bn)
26. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: $1.7 billion (£1.3bn)
25. Bashar Al-Assad: up to $2 billion (£1.6bn)
24. Thaksin Shinawatra: $2.1 billion (£1.7bn)
23. Sebastian Piñera: $2.9 billion (£2.3bn)
22. Robert Mugabe: $3.2 billion (£2.6bn)
21. Saddam Hussein: $3.4 billion (£2.7bn)
20. Daniel Arap Moi: $3.6 billion (£2.9bn)
19. Wen Jiabao: $3.7 billion (£2.9bn)
18. Francisco Franco: up to $3.8 billion (£3bn)
17. Kim Jong Un: $5 billion (£4bn)
16. Kim Jong Il: $5.6 billion (£4.5bn)
15. Donald Trump: $6.1 billion (£4.9bn)
14. Silvio Berlusconi: $6.8 billion (£5.4bn)
13. Sani Abacha: $7.8 billion (£6.2bn)
12. Adolf Hitler: $8 billion (£6.4bn)
11. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali: $14 billion (£11.1bn)
10. Mobutu Sese Seko: $15.2 billion (£12.1bn)
9. José Eduardo dos Santos: $25.8 billion (£20.5bn)
8. Ibrahim Babangida: $27.9 billion (£22.2bn)
7. Mahathir Mohamad: $40 billion (£31.8bn)
6. Ferdinand Marcos: $53 billion (£43bn)
5. Suharto: up to $58 billion (£46.1bn)
4. Ali Abdullah Saleh: up to $82.6 billion (£65.7bn)
3. Hosni Mubarak: $98.2 billion (£78.1bn)
2. Vladimir Putin: up to $258 billion (£205bn)
1. Muammar Gaddafi: $280 billion (£223bn)
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Edoardo Fornaciari/Getty Images

The wealthiest ever non-royal heads of state and government chiefs

Official salaries for world leaders range from the modest to the outstandingly generous. Meanwhile, many premiers past and present boasted outrageous wealth before they bagged the top job, while others got very rich at their nation's expense while in office. 

Read on to discover who makes the list as we countdown the peak net worth of the 40 most affluent non-royal heads of state and government chiefs ever. We've included historical leaders where reliable estimates of their fortunes exist. Where net worth figures predate 2020, we've adjusted them for inflation to give you an idea of the leader's equivalent wealth today.

All dollar values in US dollars.

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Daniel Coughlin

30 January 2025

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