The changing face of the world’s wealthy

What does your average multi-millionaire look like? White? Middle-aged? Wearing the obligatory suit and tie? Not according to a new series set to be broadcast this year.

Changing Fortunes traces how the major events in the latter half of the 20th century radically changed the demographic of the world’s wealthy. According to its makers, the rich are getting younger and more racially diverse – plus there are more self-made women.

Just think how Facebook’s Mark Zukerburg became the world’s youngest billionaire when he had nothing to sell, or how Oprah Winfrey became the most influential woman in the US by selling her personality. Whichever way you look at it, the way we make money has fundamentally changed.

Events such as the fall of the Soviet Union, China’s move to socialism after decades of communism and the technology boom have created a wealth of opportunity for budding capitalists. The programme takes the viewer across the world to tell the success stories of these entrepreneurs in an attempt, the makers say, “to offer a window into our rapidly changing world”.