The global recession is sharpening the divisions between rich and poor, but in this time of loss comes news to console the suffering masses.

The very wealthiest men and women are suffering too. They may not have lost their homes, their cars, or their super-yachts, but they have lost sums that could finance nations.

More than 300 have even lost that comforting title “billionaire”, at least when their worth is measured in dollars. These have slipped down to become mere millionaires, or to await prosecution for fraud.

Forbes, the magazine that tracks the world’s rich like a naturalist charting wildebeest, published its list of billionaires yesterday. It has shrunk from a crowd of 1,125 to a mob of 793, the first time that billionaires have become rarer as a species since 2003.

At the top is Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, but even he is poorer by $18 billion. In these straitened times, he must get by with only $40 billion.

Last year’s number one, the human calculator and canny investor Warren Buffett, has slipped back to second. The “Sage of Omaha” lost $25 billion, roughly equivalent to the gross domestic product of Nigeria, in 2008.

Together with Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecoms tycoon, these three have lost $68 billion in the past year.

The biggest loser is Anil Ambani, an Indian businessman who invested in telecoms. In 2008, according to Forbes. com, he lost $31.9 billion.

Asian and Russian billionaires, as a sub-species, are greatly diminished. Oleg Deripaska, the Russian aluminium magnate, who was ninth last year, had used his shareholdings as collateral for loans. When markets crashed, banks demanded their money back. Forbes says his wealth has shrunk from $28 billion to $3.5 billion.

Roman Abramovich, Chelsea Football Club’s owner, saw his worth decline from $23.5 billion to $8.5 billion.

Britain, which could boast 35 billionaires in 2008, now has only 25.

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One mogul, who got divorced yesterday, has maintained his wealth at $3.7 billion, but as the aviation industry flies into some dark clouds, Sir Richard Branson’s net worth is down to $2.5 billion from $4.4 billion. At the head of a retail empire, Sir Philip Green is down to $4.8 billion from $8.4 billion, and David Ross and Charles Dunstone, of Carphone Warehouse, have dropped off the list altogether. J. K. Rowling, a dollar billionaire, remains near the bottom.

Other successful billionaires have been those who knew when to sell. One is Mikhail Prokhorov, now the richest Russian. “He sold out at a very good time,” said Tatiana Serafin, co-editor of the list. “He has lost money, but he now has a reported cash pile of $5.5 billion, and a net worth of $9.5 billion.”

Of regional differences, she said: “You find the Americans tend to want to talk about how they made their money, while the Germans are very quiet and never want to. The Russians like to display it.”

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