Which degree each country's richest person studied

University degrees of world's richest people, shown as a world map. (Image: Resume.io)

The university degree that the wealthiest person studied in each country around the world has been revealed.

Career advice site Resume.io compiled the list, which shows "business and finance" degrees to be the most popular undergraduate category, with 26 billionaires having done it.

But not going to university is apparently no barrier to becoming ultra-wealthy, with 28 billionaires not having undertaken any undergraduate study.

There are also people like Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart who started a degree but did not finish it.

"Oceania’s richest person, the Australian Gina Rinehart, began studying economics at the University of Sydney but dropped out to get a hands-on education at her father’s iron ore mining business," said the report.

Australia's Gina Rinehart is by far the wealthiest in Oceania.

"She learned well from what she saw. When her father died, leaving behind a bankrupt estate, Rinehart turned around the family business’s fortunes, transforming it into one of Australia’s leading mining concerns."

Economics was also popular, with 22 of the world's richest studying that course, and engineering was not far behind with 21.

The world's wealthiest man, American e-commerce mogul Jeff Bezos, is from that background.

"The richest man in the United States is also the richest man in the world, but Jeff Bezos had a lean 2019," reads Resume.io's report.

"The Amazon boss’s divorce settlement made ex-wife MacKenzie one of the richest five women in America and the world, allowing Bill Gates to briefly topple Jeff from the top spot. Jeff studied electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton, and MacKenzie studied English at the same institution a few years later."

The world's wealthiest man, Jess Bezos, is from the United States.

The world's most populous continent, Asia, and the degrees its wealthiest people studied.

In China, Li Ka-Shing made his US$28 billion after doing no undergraduate degree. Regional rival India produced an engineer, Mukesh Ambani, as its wealthiest person.

At the end of the league table, education, medicine, history and maths degrees were the least popular, with only two billionaires in each of those fields.

"There aren’t many teachers on our list of the richest people list. But Papua New Guinea’s richest person – former prime minister Michael Somare – used his teaching qualification to inspire young minds at several primary and secondary schools before going into politics."

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