Europe is home to many of the most powerful and economically developed countries in the world, as well as more than 740 million people.But onlyeight of the50 richest people in the worldcome from the continent ' andhalf of them inherited their fortunes. The others, including second-richest person on earth Amancio Ortega,forged their fortunes infashion and furniture.This comes from new data provided to Business Insider by Wealth-X, a company thatconducts research on the super-wealthy, featured in our recent rankingof the world's richest people. Wealth-X maintains a database of dossiers on more than 110,000 ultra-high-net-worth people, using a proprietary valuation modelto discern the size of their fortunes.Read on to learn more aboutthe richest people in Europe, including a man who has a near-monopoly on eyewear and the founder of the world's largest furniture maker.SEE ALSO:The 50 richest people on earthSEE ALSO:The 29 richest people in America8. Leonardo Del VecchioNet worth: $19.7 billionAge:80Country:ItalyIndustry:EyewearSource of wealth:Self-made; Luxottica GroupEven at 80, Leonardo Del Vecchio still chairs Luxottica, the nearly$30 billion company he founded in 1961. The largest eyewear company on the planet, Luxottica not only owns Sunglass Hut, Ray-Ban, and Oakley, but manufacturers glasses for nearly every luxury brand out there, including Burberry, Chanel, Prada, and Versace.Though Del Vecchio started Luxottica as a tiny one-room enterprise in Milan, it now operates 10 factories worldwide, employs 35,000 people, and produces more than 65,000 pairs of glasses per day, holding a veritable monopoly on the eyewear industry.Del Vecchio isn't all business, though. Last March, he showed his generous side by giving his Italian employees $10 million worth of sharesin the company to celebrate his 80th birthday.7. Dieter SchwarzNet worth: $20.9 billionAge:76Country:GermanyIndustry:RetailSource of wealth:Inheritance/self-made; Schwarz GruppeDieter Schwarz joined his father's food-wholesaling businessin 1973 and opened the company's first discount supermarket shortly thereafter. He took over as CEO when his father died in 1977 and rapidly expanded the business outside Germany, rebranding the company as Schwarz Gruppe.The parent companyumbrellasLidl, a successful grocery-store chain and the second largest in Germany behind Aldi, and Kaufland, a chain of "hypermarket" stores similar to Walmart. Lidl has nearly 10,000 stores across 26 European countries and is set to break ground on US soilin 2018. Schwarz Gruppe now pulls in$85 billion in annual sales.The German billionaire lives a quiet life out of the spotlight with his wife and two kids in their hometown ofHeilbronn. He'sreportedly a generous donor to educational causes.6. Georg SchaefflerNet worth: $22.2 billionAge:51Country:GermanyIndustry:ManufacturingSource of wealth:Inheritance/self-made; Schaeffler GroupGeorg Schaeffler served in the German military and held a short career in corporate law in the US before jumping aboard his father's company, Schaeffler Group, the nearly $11 billion (in sales) ball bearings and auto-parts maker that Schaeffler now co-owns with his mother.The company made a splashin 2008 with its $17 billion hostile takeoverattemptof tire and auto-parts maker Continental AG, which went south and left Schaeffler Group saddled with debt that it's managing to this day. It still owns a nearly 50% stake inContinental.Schaeffler Group has recently invested nearly $550 million in its electric and hybrid car parts business, and itexpects to double the number in the next five years.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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