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Sweden: A socialist paradise overflowing with billionaires
The country is generating the kind of wealth that raises the risk of an anti-capitalist revolt
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Sweden has 45 billionaires, about 1.5 times more per capita than the US.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Ruchir Sharma
Every year I run an analysis of the Forbes rich lists, to spot countries where billionaire wealth is surging as a share of gross domestic product, concentrating in family empires or pooling in “bad” industries better known for corruption than productivity. My working assumption is that the most extreme outliers face the highest risk of anti-capitalist revolt.
In 2025, the warning signs point above all to Sweden. Though still seen by many progressives as a socialist paradise, Sweden saw billionaire wealth rise by four points to 31 per cent of GDP – the biggest increase, and to the highest level, of the 20 major economies in my analysis.
