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Forbes 400: The Richest People In The U.S.

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Of the 400 richest people in the United States, 18 of them live in the Chicago area, according to Forbes Magazine.

Five of those have the last name of Pritzker. The hotel magnates have a combined worth of $13.4 billion, led by J B Pritzker's $3.4 billion.

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Ken Griffin, who made his fortune in hedge funds, leads the Chicago list with $5.5 billion, followed by real estate mogul Sam Zell with $4.8 billion.

The richest man in American is once again Bill Gates, whose Microsoft fortune is valued at $81 billion.

He has held the richest man title for 21 straight years.

Because of strong gains in the stock market, the cutoff to make the list rose to $1.55 billion, compared with $1.3 billion last year.

A total of 113 billionaires didn't even make the top 400, Forbes reported

Chicago-area people on the Forbes 400:

#89 - Ken Griffin; hedge funds        $5.5B
#104 - Sam Zell; real estate          $4.8B
#147 - J Christopher Reyes; food      $3.6B
#147 - Jude Reyes; food               $3.6B
#164 - J B Pritzker; hotels           $3.4B
#177 - Thomas Pritzker; hotels        $3.2B
#221 - Neil Bluhm; real estate        $2.8B
#256 - Gigi Pritzker; hotels          $2.5B
#257 - Penny Pritzker; hotels         $2.5B
#269 - Pat Ryan; insurance            $2.4B
#280 - Joseph Grendys; meat proc.     $2.3B
#285 - Ty Warner; toys; real estate   $2.3B
#290 - Josephine Louis; cleaning      $2.2B
#334 - Dean White; hotels             $1.96B  
#337 - Joe Mansueto; investment       $1.96B
#360 - Jennifer Pritzker; hotels      $1.79B
#367 - Mark Walter; finance           $1.75B
#399 - Eric Lefkofsky; Groupon        $1.5B

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the 11th richest person in the United States, and the biggest dollar gainer. His fortune soared to $34 billion, up $15 billion since last year, due to a sharp rise in the price of the social network's shares.

All together the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth a staggering $2.29 trillion, up $270 billion from a year ago. That's about the same as the gross domestic product of Brazil, a country of 200 million people.

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