Two Swedish entrepreneurs among the world's 20 richest people.

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The rich are getting richer. The top 10 richest people in the world have a combined worth of 342 billion dollars in 2010, up from 254 billion a year ago.

Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim, criticised as a ruthless monopolist, was crowned as the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine. He squeezed past Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a 500 million dollar margin that broke Gates' reign as world's richest man.

In eleventh place was 83-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, who set up Ikea in 1943 as a teenager, with a fortune of 23 billion dollars. Last year he was ranked number five, with 22 billion dollars. Ikea is an unlisted, family-owned company. Ingvar Kamprad lives in tax exile in Switzerland.

Stefan Persson, the son of Erling Persson who founded the Swedish fashion company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M;) in 1947, was placed at number 13 with calculated net worth of 22.4 billion dollars. He climbed from number 18 last year with 14.5 billion dollars. Since 1982 Stefan Persson has been the main owner of H&M.; He lives in Stockholm.

A total of 1,011 billionaires from 55 countries made the list this year – with 97 "newbies". Nearly two-thirds of the new billionaires were from Asia.

Forbes' list of world's richest persons:

1. Carlos Slim Helu and family. Mexico. Telecoms. 53.5 billion dollars.

2. Bill Gates. US. Microsoft. 53 billion dollars.

3. Warren Buffett. US. Berkshire Hathaway. 47 billion dollars.

4. Mukesh Ambani. India. Oil, gas. 29 billion dollars.

5. Lakshmi Mittal. India. Steel. 28.7 billion dollars.

6. Lawrence Ellison. US. Oracle. 28 billion dollars.

7. Bernard Arnault. France. LVMH luxury goods. 27.5 billion dollars.

8. Eike Batista. Brazil. Mining, oil. 27 billion dollars.

9. Amancio Ortega. Spain. Clothing retail. 25 billion dollars.

10. Karl Albrecht. Germany. Supermarkets. 23.5 billion dollars.

11. Ingvar Kamprad and family. Sweden. Ikea. 23 billion dollars.

12. Christy Walton and family. US. Walmart. 22.5 billion dollars.

13. Stefan Persson. Sweden. Hennes and Mauritz. 22.4 billion dollars.

14. Li Ka-shing. Hong Kong. Diversified. 21 billion dollars.

15. Jim Walton. US. Walmart. 20.7 billion dollars.

16. Alice Walton. US. Walmart. 20.6 billion dollars.

17. Liliane Bettencourt. France. L'Oreal. 20 billion dollars.

18. S. Robson Walton. Walmart. 19.8 billion dollars.

19. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud. Saudi Arabia. Investments. 19.4 billion dollars.

20. David Thomson and family. Canada. Inheritance. 19 billion dollars.