Story highlights Nearly a quarter of world's billionaires are women, with combined wealth of $930 billion

Wealth-X has compiled a list of the wealthiest women in each region

Topping the list in North America -- and globally -- is Christy Walton worth $37.9 billion

Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time, remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more.



Note: This article was amended on 16 January 2015 to correct the name of one of the regions.

(CNN) There are 2,325 billionaires in the world, according to the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014, and just over 12% of them are women.

With a combined wealth of $930 billion, the world's richest females are making their mark on the global economy -- and their fortunes are only expected to improve in 2015.

Of the 286 female billionaires identified, only 17% have self-made fortunes.

The U.S. is currently home to the highest number of self-made female billionaires -- but future billionaires creating their own fortunes are predicted to come primarily from emerging markets.

These wealthy women have an average age of 61 years and over 65% of them inherited their wealth from multinational corporations, including retail store Walmart and cosmetics giant L'Oreal.