The number of British billionaires on the Forbes rich list has risen to 53, up six from last year.

Newcomers include Speedo brand owner Stephen Rubin, with a net worth of 3 billion US dollars (£1.95 billion), Monster energy drinks boss Hilton Schlosberg and The Range homewear owner Chris Dawson.

Other British newcomers include retailer Tom Morris, property mogul Christos Lazari and textiles boss Kenneth Lo.

The Hinduja brothers are the wealthiest Britons on the list with a net worth of 15 billion US dollars (£9.76 billion).

The magazine said it calculated each person's wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates on February 13.

The number of Russian billionaires on the list plummeted from 111 to 28, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also dropped out, in the wake of controversial military intervention.

In total 138 people dropped off the list while 19 died.

The biggest loser worldwide was Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, who saw his fortune drop from a net worth of 25 billion US dollars (£16.26 billion) to 14.7 billion dollars (£9.56 billion).

There was also a record number of 197 women on the list, up from 172 last year.

They include Walmart's Christy and Alice Walton, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and the chocolate industry's Jacqueline Mars.

The average net worth of a 2015 billionaire was 3.86 billion US dollars (£2.51 billion), down 60 million dollars from last year.

The front cover of the 2015 Forbes World's Billionaires issue features Minecraft creator Markus Persson, whose fortune rose to 1.3 billion US dollars (£845 million) this year.