Compiling the list of the richest Lebanese people and families in the world is a notoriously difficult exercise. Many have tried and nobody seems to agree on both the Listees and their estimated fortune. Not because there are so many (although Lebanon does have an impressively high number of billionaires given its limited population) but simply because Lebanese wealth is often “hidden” and hence oblivious to the approach of magazines like Forbes who are good at estimating the net worth of US citizens (who must by law disclose all of their assets and hence net worth in the US and abroad) but incredibly poor at evaluating the wealth of, let’s say, African billionaires (who are hence rarely listed). The exercise is therefore much more complicated than Forbes’ simplistic approach that omits, every year, thousands of billionaires (and a lot of money) in its listing of the world’s richest. The following list was therefore carefully put together by the Middle East Wealth Report ®, itself using many different sources, techniques and approaches to peg Lebanon’s richest and their estimated fortune (whether them or their family, a trait specific to Middle East wealth).| 1 | Carlos Slim | US$72.5 billion | Lebanese by both his parents. |
| 2 | Al-Waleed bin Talal | US$20.5 billion | Half Saudi, half Lebanese. |
| 3 | Edmond Safra | US$12.5 billion | Edmond Safra Family. |
| 4 | Gilbert Chagoury | US$4.2 billion | Gilbert Chagoury Family. |
| 5 | Nicolas Hayek | US$3.9 billion | Nicolas Hayek Family. |
| 6 | Robert Mouawad | US$3.5 billion | Father of Fred Mouawad. |
| 7 | Taha Mikati | US$2.8 billion | Brother of Najib Milkati |
| 8 | Najib Mikati | US$2.6 billion | Brother of Taha Mikati. |
| 9 | Bahaa Hariri | US$2.4 billion | Brother of Saad and Faad Hariri. |
| 10 | Issam Fares | US$2.3 billion | Issam Fares Family. |
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