According to a new report from Oxfam International, the combined wealth of the 80 richest billionaires is the same as that of the bottom 50% of the Earth's population - 3.5 billion people.

The report, 'Wealth: Having It All and Wanting More,' was released as the World Economic Forum begins this week in Davos, Switzerland.

Oxfam's report explained that it calculated figures from Credit Suisse and based its list of wealthiest figures off Forbes' billionaires list, which was published in March 2014.  

'By 2014, the 80 people who top the Forbes rich list had a collective wealth of $1.9tn,' the charity's report said.

According to the Forbes list, the five wealthiest people in the world are Bill Gates (net worth $76 billion), Carlos Slim Helu (net worth $72 billion), Amancio Ortega (net worth $64 billion), Warren Buffett (net worth $58.2 billion), and Larry Ellison (net worth $48 billion).

Rounding out the top ten are brothers Charles and David Koch (whose net worth was tied at $40 billion), Sheldon Adelson (net worth $38 billion), Christy Walton (net worth $36.7 billion) and Jim Walton (net worth $34.7 billion).

492 people out of the 1,645 billionaires on the 2014 Forbes list are US citizens, Oxfam pointed out. Aside from Slim Helu and Ortega - who are from Mexico and Spain, respectively - all the billionaires in the top ten are Americans.

Oxfam found that 388 billionaires had the same amount of money as the bottom 50% of the Earth's population in 2010.

The charity's report also said that the richest 1 percent of the population will own more than half the world's wealth by 2016. 

Oxfam said the world's richest people saw their share of global wealth jump to 48 percent last year from 44 percent in 2009.

Rising inequality is holding back the fight against global poverty as the world's biggest companies lobby the U.S. and European Union for beneficial tax changes at a time when average taxpayers are still paying the bill for the financial crisis, Oxfam said.

'Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?' Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam's executive director, said in a statement. 'The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering, and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.'

While world leaders such as President Barack Obama and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde have talked about tackling extreme economic inequality 'we are still waiting for many of them to walk the walk,' Byanyima said.

The healthcare and financial services industries spent almost $900 million to lobby the U.S. government for favorable legislation in 2013, and more than $200 million was spent on lobbying in the EU, Oxfam said.

At the same time, one in nine people don't have enough to eat and more than a billion people live on less than $1.25 a day, Oxfam said, ticking off statistics that paint a grim picture for all but the world's richest.

The charity is calling for a crackdown on tax avoidance by corporations and rich people, as well as increased investment in health and education and equal pay legislation.

(dailymail.co.uk)