The rich got richer this year, and that includes Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton, who is now the second wealthiest woman in the world, says Forbes.

According to the 2024 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, released April 2, Walton has a net worth of $72.3 billion, up from $56.7 billion in 2023, $65.3 billion in 2022, and $61.8 billion in 2021. Life is good as a Walmart heiress.

Walton climbed past last year's second-wealthiest woman, American Julia Koch of Koch Industries, whose fortune of $64.3 billion puts her at No. 3 in 2024 (but is still up from last year's $59 billion).

The world's richest woman remains Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, a French L’Oreal Beauty heiress worth $99.5 billion (up from $80.5 billion in 2023).

Walton, 74, is the only daughter of late Walmart founder Sam Walton. While she devotes most of her time and energy now to her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in her native Bentonville, Arkansas, Forbes still lists her residence as Fort Worth.

In Forbes' complete list of billionaires for 2024, Walton ranks as the 21st richest person across the globe; her brothers Jim Walton (No. 18 with $78.4 billion) and Rob Walton (No. 19 wit $77.4 billion) rank just ahead of her.

For the last several years, Alice Walton also has "battled"Elon Musk for the top spot in Texas. The Austin-based founder of Tesla and Space-X and owner of social media platform X continues his reign as the wealthiest Texan in 2024 and, with a net worth of $195 billion, he’s the second richest in the world.

Musk notches his spot between No. 1 Bernard Arnault of France (overseer of the LVMH empire of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora), with a net worth of $233 billion; and No. 3 Jeff Bezos, the American Amazon founder, worth $194 billion. They are in the world's most elite club of just 14 people who are $100 billion-billionaires, Forbes says.

"As a group, the World’s Billionaires are 120% richer than they were a decade ago. But these 14, whose wealth is up 255% over the same stretch, have done much better than the average billionaire," Forbes says in its report accompanying the 2024 billionaires list. "Their net worths have far outpaced inflation (up 32%) and the broader stock market (S&P 500 up 182%), placing them in the company of NFL franchises (up 257%) in terms of skyrocketing value."

To calculate net worths, Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024, they say.

The complete report, including Fort Worth billionaires who join Walton on the 2024 list, is on the Forbes website.