The richest people in Uruguay

Uruguay is a developing country that had actually doesn’t have any billionaires. The economy has been developing over the years but it has definitely seen its struggles. It has beautiful scenery and the famous capital of Montevideo is known for its scenic qualities. And that does help out the South America country with its economy it had the most severe economic and financial crisis recently, between 1999 and 2002. This was largely caused by my major crisis in Argentina and the country had to endure major job losses and economic contractions. But What’s interesting about this country is that even though the environment around it was very chaotic in this time it retained a reputation among investors and its investment-grade sovereign bond rating, and still remains one of the most trusted traders. After the country slowly recovered from the crises, it started to diversify its economy and delve into fields like information technology and architectural expertise. Meanwhile, the government continued to deal with the national debt and they also took charge of dealing with the prevailing poverty issue in the country as well as unemployment issues. The efforts paid off and Argentine started to get back on its feet slowly and managed to reach a steady growth in its economy during 2004-2008, reaching about 7%. While the following years were tough for almost the entire world, Uruguay was the only one that didn’t experience recession. Right now it is one of the more developed countries in the South America and is embracing the new age approach o economy and innovative industries. As we mentioned earlier, Uruguay doesn’t have any billionaires but it doesn’t mean that they still don’t have some outstanding successful and rich people that we could discuss. We’re combined with a list of most famous wealthy families and people from Uruguay.

Tabare Vazquez

• Age: 97
• Industry: politics
• Networth: $96 billion

In countries with economic layouts similar to Uruguay’s, it’s not rare to find that people in powerful political positions are often the richest in the country. Tabare Vazquez fits the profile just right. He is one of the most beloved presidents ever to rule the country and currently he is on his second term that started in 2015. Before that, he served as president of Uruguay in 2005-2010. He is the only president that has won without the need for a second round of elections since the institutions of two-round systems was introduced in 1999. Vazques is also the first president to come from the left-leaning party so he has a lot of firsts under his belt. His main source of wealth is his power and he has managed to make very good use out of it. The Uruguayan millionaire didn’t always dream of becoming a politician. Tabare first studied medicine at the Universidad de la Republica Medical School and graduated as an oncology specialist. But soon after finishing his studies he realized he actually wanted to be involved in politics. He rand for the president first in 1994 but ended up losing to a Colorado Party, but he managed to get 30% of the votes which was pretty successful for the first time. In 1996, he was elected as the leader of the Frente Amplio, the party which he was representing and ran for the president again in 1999, again losing to the Colorado Party. But Finally won in 2004 with 50% of the votes. He is associated with very drastic reforms in the country. Vazquez tackled the education system and the international relations head-on and managed to get some good results out of it as well. In Uruguay with power also comes the access to wealth and opportunities to build off of that wealth it seems like the Uruguayan president had no trouble adapting to the rules and managed to build a wealthy empire for himself.

Gabe Saporta

• Age: 40
• Industry: Entertainment
• Networth: $57 million

While Uruguay has a lack of billionaires, its millionaires come from all different walks of life. It’s rare to see a singer make it to the Country’s richest people list but Gabe Saporta is an exception. Gave is an Uruguayan-American musician but for the latter part of his life, he has been focusing more on helping others instead of his own music projects like Cobra Starship, which was actually quite popular at the beginning of the decade. He announced that the band would stop the music production in 2015 to focus on his more entrepreneurial projects. His money comes from his few hits that managed to stay at the Billboard Hot 100 for a while and now the musician has branched out into his new venture, The Artist Group. Gave has been in the industry for 2 decades and has previously been the lead singer, bassist, and lyricist for the punk band Midtown. So he has been involved with music all his life so it makes sense for him to share his knowledge of the industry and different strategies to advance in the music world. The entrepreneurial aspect of it seems to come easy for the Uruguayan millionaire and he clearly managed to build quite a good business out of it. He might not have been the most successful or famous musician but one cant say that he doesn’t know the industry or cant help others achieve their potential. His love for music has gotten him further than most people ever go with their music careers and now he’s willing to share the knowledge with other artists who want to do the same.

Natalia Oreiro

• Age: 42
• Industry: Entertainment
• Networth: $10 million

We can usually judge a lot by the country’s character by the type of professionals that get famous and wealthy. It would be hard to find another country where musicians and entertainers make it to the top ten list of the richest people. What more impressive is that the next person we’ll discuss is a woman and she is the wealthiest female in all of Uruguay.  Natalia has dabbled in all sorts of entertainment sphere during her career She started out as a telenovela actress and soon moved on to different more profitable things and managed to become a billionaire thanks to her popularity and beloved personality. She is a singer, actress and fashion designer. Moving away from telenovelas pretty early on in her career she has been working exclusively on films since 2008. She always knew she wanted to be an actress a studies drama all her life. While she is originally from Uruguay she built the basis for her career in Argentina where she moved at the young age of 16. After she got more recognition she decided to try out singing career and released a couple of albums. Because f her talent her fame exceeded South America and she even has a fan in Russia and Israel. She now mostly focuses on charity work and collaborates with organizations like UNICEF to raise awareness and use her fame and wealth to help bring a positive change in the world. But she stills stars in couple of telenovelas every now and then and pursues music career, releasing albums regularly. She even did a tour across Eastern Europe called Nasha Natasha Tour Hits which was a big success for the Uruguayan star. She still remains popular in South America and outside of the region.

Fede Alvarez

• Age: 41
• Industry: Filmmaking
• Networth: $71 billion

Technically we’re still in the entertainment industry which shows just how much Uruguans love their filmmakers and musicians and artists. This next person if the representative of the film industry and has gained worldwide success because of his outstanding movies, which have also brought him a lot of wealth. This Uruguayan billionaire was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and started out his director career by releasing a short film Ataque de Panico! on Youtube. The film was shown at the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Film Festival. This is where his big break happened because soon after he received an offer from Ghost House Pictures to direct a $30-$40 million sci-fi film. His first project as a full-length feature film director happened to be Evil Dead that has now gained a worldwide following and still enjoy by many film buffs far outside South America.  After the commercial and he critical success of the movie, Alvarez felt more secure in his professional and he ever shared with the press that he felt like going bigger franchises but he decided to stay loyal t his roots and keep directing a feature film that was authentic to his vision. Staying away from big franchises didn’t hurt the director one bit since he is still one of the richest Uruguruanis around. His career hasn’t stopped growing either and he has since branched out of his comfort zone. in 2026 he directed an adaptation of Monsterpocalypse for Warner Bros, and in 2017 he became the part of the co-writing time that worked out the Labyrinth spin-off. he continued to direct the girl in the spider web,  a reboot of the cult classic The girl with the dragon tattoo. He is said to be working on the adaptation of Dante’s Inferno video games adaptation while he continues to work on the feature firms on the side as his to fuel his passion.

Luis Suarez

• Age: 32
• Industry: Football
• Networth: $70 million

Uruguay keeps surprising us with the people that make it to the list of the richest people but it points to the unique nature of the economic layout in the country. We could even add this to the people who made it to the list through the entertainment industry. Luis Suarez is a world-famous football player and has millions of fans around the world. He plays in Spanish club Barcelona and the Uruguay national team.  He is frequently cited as one of the best players n the world and this has clearly reflected on his wealth reflect his value to his team and his supporters. Suarez started playing in 2003 and at 19 he relocated from Uruguay to the Netherlands to play for Groningen and in 2007 transferred to Ajax. He was named the dutch footballer soon after he transferred to the Netherlands and he got recognition for his talents soon enough.  It was when he finally arrived in Barcelona when his career really started to take off. Throughout his career, he won 18 trophies, including six league titles, a UEFA Champions League title club level, and a Copa America. He has won European Golden Shoes and Everivisie Golden boot and a Premier League Golden Boot so he has definitely established itself in the football community as one of the best players around so it snots surprising that his salary reflects that. On an International level, Suarez is in the top 5 all-time leading goalscorer and always plays an important part in every one of hos games. The Suarez example just proves that if you are really good at something you will be able to make a pretty good living out of it.

Edinson Cavani

• Age: 32
• Industry: Football
• Networth: $40 billion

The second footballer that made it on the list of the richest people from Uruguay is Edinson Cavani and he like Suarez owes his fortune to his football career. While his fortune is less compared to Suarez’s he is still considered to be one of the most successful footballers out there, and he is definitely one of the most successful footballers to start out in Uruguay. He began his career in Montevideo, where he played for a little while before moving to Italian side Palermo in 2007. Later he transferred to Napoli on an initial loan where the team paid €17 million to keep him around. He built the majority of his career in Italy, winning his first club honor at Coppa Italia, where he was top scorer with five goals. in 2013 he moved to Paris Saint-Germain for a reported €64 million, which was the most expensive transfer in French football history. He is still connected to his homeland Uruguay and plays with the national team. He is another example of a person following unconventional path for profession and getting the salary and the recognition that most people can’t even dream of.