Roman Abramovich still didn't crack the top 10, but don't feel badly for him.

Abramovich, who was orphaned as a child, is now the 16th-richest man in the world according to Forbes, with a fortune estimated at $18.7 billion that got its start in oil. He leads a pack of 53 Russian billionaires. Think of that--53 billionaires in a country that less than a decade ago was in economic shambles, a country that two decades ago barely knew the meaning of the word capitalism. Russia's 53 billionaires, 19 more than last year, give it the third largest group of billionaires by country, and it is just two billionaires behind Germany. The country with the most billionaires is the United States; Japan has just 24 this year.

There was a report a few weeks back by the Russian business magazine Finance that Abramovich was no longer Russia's richest man because he has reportedly been spending heavily on the British soccer team he owns, Chelsea. Abramovich is further down the rankings this year (16th, down from 11th last year), but his fortune is actually up a tad from last year's $18.2 billion.

Abramovich has, since 2001, been the governor of Chukotka, an oil-rich region that is the northernmost point in Russia. Among other economic development efforts, he has established a charity there called Pole of Hope, which sends local children to summer camps on the Black Sea.

Abramovich isn't the only billionaire with ties to adoption or the world's needy children. Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder who is ranked 11 this year with a fortune of $21.5 on the Forbes list, was adopted by his aunt and uncle as an infant. And Bill Gates, who tops the Forbes list for the 13th year running with riches of $56 billion, has donated nearly $8 billion to improving maternal and child health from Africa to China since the creation of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 1994.

Here's hoping more of the world's wealthiest people follow Gates' example.