Some casual facts for you: Not only have the Harry Potter books sold more than 500 million copies, but they've also been turned into a massively successful film series and they're the inspiration for three whole amusement parks. So, yeah, J. K. Rowling is rich. In fact, she's richer than the Queen of England.
Her worth has now been estimated as a gigantic £795million, up £45million in the last 12 months, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. But this pales in comparison to some of the other big earners on the list. Britain's richest woman is Kirsten Rausing, who boasts a £12.1billion fortune.
Answer and Explanation: No, J.K. Rowling is not the richest woman in the world.
J.K. Rowling's estimated net worth is $1 billion dollars but the author has insisted that she isn't a billionaire. That may be true if she has donated a lot of it. Rowling has made most of her money from the Harry Potter franchise which includes book sales, movies, theme parks, and merchandise.
Some casual facts for you: Not only have the Harry Potter books sold more than 500 million copies, but they've also been turned into a massively successful film series and they're the inspiration for three whole amusement parks. So, yeah, J. K. Rowling is rich. In fact, she's richer than the Queen of England.
The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real-time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916.
Billionaire, businessman and the chairman and chief executive of LVMH (LVMUY), Bernard Arnault holds the crown as the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Arnault has a fortune of $234.5 billion.
The New York Times stated that Rowling sold the rights for the first four Harry Potter movies for $2 billion as well as receiving a portion of the net profits whenever a movie ticket or DVD was sold.
The pen name J.K. Rowling belongs to the first billionaire author, Joanne Kathleen Rowling, a British novelist, who created the award-winning Harry Potter series that has sold over 400 million copies around the world.
J. K. Rowling first met Queen Elizabeth in March 2001 shortly after the publication of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. Harry Potter creator J K Rowling and Senior Commissioning Editor Emma Matthewson (right) at Bloomsbury Publishing in London.
To put that in perspective, Oprah ranked ninth with $2.3 billion and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is 20th with $1 billion. The numbers were compiled by the Hurun Report.
Multiple sources have cited that Rowling earns anywhere between $50 million to a $100 million each year from royalties.
Private estate of the Sovereign
In 2002, she inherited her mother's estate, thought to have been worth £70 million (the equivalent of about £121 million today). Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Sovereign.
Queen Elizabeth's net worth: $500 million
The queen's personal fortune stems from her ownership of art, jewels, investments and real estate, which includes Balmoral Castle in Scotland — where she passed away on Thursday — and Sandringham House in England.
1. J.K. Rowling. British author Joanne Rowling, also known as J.K. Rowling, is the richest author in the world with a net worth of $1 billion. Rowling is the author of the hit children's fantasy series "Harry Potter." The seven-volume series sold over 600 million copies and has been translated into 84 languages.
Warner Bros. Entertainment owns the production rights to the franchise, while Rowling owns the intellectual property rights and the Warner Bros. CEO has mentioned that he'd like to dive back into the Harry Potter franchise and work on some new movies.
Though Rowling did not create the game's characters or story, as the author of Harry Potter she owns the rights to the franchise's intellectual property, meaning that she makes royalties based on Harry Potter merchandise, the movies, the Warner Brothers theme park, and of course, sales of the books.
In 2004, Forbes named Rowling "the first billion-dollar author". Rowling denied that she was a billionaire in a 2005 interview. By 2012, Forbes concluded she was no longer a billionaire due to her charitable donations and high UK taxes.
In broader terms, the finance and investment profession has the most millionaires. It also has the most billionaires, with 371. Here's a list of the seven best careers if you want to be a millionaire.
Walton Family
The Walton family knows its way around some retail revenue. Its namesake, mega-retailer Walmart, has an estimated global revenue of $611.3 billion. As the family owns nearly half of the company, they should be quite comfortable for generations to come.
That is one thousand times a billion (nine zeros followed by 1). Do you know that only 6 trillionaires ever lived on the face of earth? As of today, there are no trillionaires who live on earth.
Mark Zuckerberg Loses $7 Billion in Net Worth as Facebook Stock Falls (FB) - Bloomberg.
Net worth refers to a person's total assets—including business interests, investments, and personal property—minus their debts. No one has yet claimed the title of trillionaire, although the speed at which the world's wealthiest individuals have grown their fortunes suggests that it could happen in just a few years.