New York, NY —

These days, it takes a billion dollars to be on the list of richest people. For the first time, Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans consists exclusively of people worth one billion or more.

The biggest number of people in the 'big "B" club' live in California, which houses 90 of the 400, another 44 live in New York City and 5 live in New Jersey.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger points out that while the number of New York's billionaires has increased by more than 50%, in contrast about 20%t of the city's population lives below the poverty line.