The coronavirus pandemic caused factories to close, forced people out of work and resulted in economic recessions for much of the world. However, the health crisis also created a chance for 40 people to join the list of the world’s richest. Forbes magazine released its yearly list of the world’s billionaires on Tuesday. The U.S.-based magazine found that even with the pandemic, 2020 was a “record-setting year for the world’s wealthiest.” Forbes found that a record 493 people became billionaires last year, or about “one new billionaire every 17 hours.” The list now has 2,755 billionaires. It is the most ever since the magazine started publishing the list 35 years ago. The magazine found that the billionaires’ wealth is worth about $13.1 trillion. That is nearly the size of the 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) of China, the world’s second largest economy. And the number is as large as the combined GDPs of Japan, Germany, Britain and South Korea. That information comes from the World Bank.