When Forbes magazine released its list of worldwide billionaires earlier this month, I scanned the list of 2,755 to see whether the names of any of my neighbors or colleagues were on it. I knew I wasn’t. I was relieved to make the hundredaires list.

There are two lucky people from the Times News’ five-county area among this year’s favored few. One is a name who was on last year’s list, but now is $200 million richer, according to Forbes. He is Dick Yuengling Jr., 78, of the nation’s oldest brewery, Yuengling Beer in Pottsville.

Yuengling checks in with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion to nail down 2,141st place. It turns out that the worldwide pandemic was a great year for beer-drinking. Someone once said that Yuengling is good for what ales you. (Groan!)

The other is a newcomer to the billionaires’ list - Jared Isaacman, 38, of Easton (CEO of Shift4Payments of Allentown, a payments processor), $2.3 billion. This places him as the 1,362nd richest person on the planet. A high school dropout, his is an incredible success story. He started the business at age 16 in his parents’ basement in Far Hills, New Jersey.

In a year wracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing with it 135 million cases and nearly 2 million deaths worldwide, widespread unemployment, homelessness and food insecurity, it is almost inconceivable to realize that there were 660 more billionaires in 2020 than there were in pre-pandemic 2019. A whopping 86% are richer than they were a year ago.

Among them were 493 newcomers, but the old guard still are at the top of the heap. Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame remains the world’s richest for the fourth year in a row with wealth estimated at $177 billion, and this is after he shared half of his net worth with his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, who became an instant billionaire in her own right in 2019 after she and Bezos split.

Scott checked in as 20th wealthiest in the world with an estimated worth of $59.5 billion.

Tesla’s Elon Musk moved up to second place with $151 billion, but if Tesla stock continues to underperform the way it has for the past several months, Musk may be knocked down a couple of pegs in the 2021 listing.

Rounding out the top five are Bernard Arnault (French businessman and art collector), $150 billion; Microsoft’s Bill Gates, $124 billion; and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, $97 billion.

Pennsylvania’s wealthiest person is a newcomer to the billionaires’ list, checking in at number 25 - Jeff Yass of Haverford (Delaware County), whose net worth is estimated at $22 billion. Yass grew up in Queens before attending the State University of New York at Binghamton. In 1987, he and a group of partners co-founded Pennsylvania based quantitative trading and market-making firm Susquehanna International Group.

Yass’ wealth surged because of his investment’s group’s holdings in TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service. He supplants candy heiress Victoria Mars of Philadelphia as Pennsylvania’s richest, but don’t fret for the wealthiest woman in the state. She is still worth $7.8 billion and is number 316 among the world’s wealthiest.

There were seven more billionaires in Pennsylvania (17) compared to a year earlier. The other 14, in order of wealth, include:

• Thomas Hagen of Erie (Erie Insurance Co.), $4.3 billion

• Mary Alice Dorrance of Coatesville (Campbell Soup), $3.7 billion.

• Michael Rubin of Bryn Mawr (CEO of Fanatics, provider of licensed sports merchandise), $3.5 billion.

• John Middleton of Bryn Mawr (tobacco magnate and co-owner of the Philadelphia Phillies), $3.4 billion.

• Jeff Lurie of Wynnewood, (owner of the Philadelphia Eagles), $3 billion.

• Maggie Hardy Knox of Belle Vernon (owner of 84 Lumber building materials) $2.9 billion

• Brian Roberts of Philadelphia (Comcast), $1.9 billion

• David Paul of Audubon (medical devices), $1.6 billion

• Richard Hayne of Philadelphia (Urban Outfitters), $1.4 billion

• Edward Stack of Sewickley (Dick’s Sporting Goods), $1.4 billion

• Alfred West Jr. of Paoli (money management) $1.4 billion

• Alan Miller and family of Lower Merion (health care services), $1.3 billion

• Thomas Tull of Pittsburgh (movies and investments), $1.2 billion

If you are keeping up with the Kardashians, Kim has moved into billionaire territory with an estimated net worth of $1 billion, while her half-sister, Kylie Jenner, whose cosmetic line propelled her into the rarefied list last year, dropped out in 2020 with a net worth of “only” $750 million.

All of these billionaires are worth a staggering $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020, according to Forbes. If you are not up on your math, 1 trillion is one with 12 zeros behind it.

Capitalism is alive and well in our country, because we have the most billionaires with 724, followed by China, including Hong Kong, with 698.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.