Who wants to be a billionaire?

Where do billionaires live?

Year 8 term 1

Key questions:What does a billion pounds buy? Who are the celebrity billionaires? Where do most billionaires live? What do global patterns of billionaire wealth look like?

Watch the introductory movie!

Starter

Do you know how to write one billion pounds?

Have a go, then compare with a friend. How many zeros does it have?

Answer on the next page!

Did you get it right?

One billion pounds or...

£1,000,000,000

Did you add nine zeros?

So what does one billion pounds buy?

Play interactive

NB!

The rest of the module discusses DOLLAR billions . At the time of writing the exchange rate is US$ 2 to UK £1. This makes comparisons easy but as currencies fluctuate you need to check the exchange at Reuters Currencies

Main activity 1Someone who is worth more than a billion is called abillionaire. Can you name any?

Try and guess who these are (interactive).

Discuss in groups who they are, what you know aboutthem and how they made their money. Why are someof these billionaires better known than others? Whyare some even richer than others?

Main activity continued

There are about 1000 billionaires in the world. (2007 figures)

This number is rising – you never know, you might be related to one, or even better be

one!

So where do they live?Use the interactive link below (map also shown on next

slide) to discover where they live then answer the following questions.

http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/images/activities/wherebillionaires.html

1) Describe which regions the billionaires live in2) Is the number of billionaires in a region related to the

population?3) Which region has the most billionaires per 100 million

people?

This map is called a cartogram. What is it showing?

Plenary

1. What have you learned about the inequality of wealth?

2. Do you think that everyone in a rich country is rich?

3. What are the disadvantages of the maps we have used today?

Homework

On your blank outline map, plot the location of the 100 richest billionaires. You could do this in a similar way to the maps you have seen

today.

You will need to devise a key and add it to your map.