JK Rowling’s fortune is as big as the Harry Potter empire she created. The “mother” of this famous series not only enjoys income from the book, but also includes the popular film adaptation series, theme amusement parks around the world…

According to estimates by the New York Times in 2016, JK Rowling’s net worth could be up to 1.2 billion USD after taxes. But according to Forbes estimates 1 year later, she was removed from the Billionaires List and only had a net worth of about 650 million USD. Since then, no more reputable estimates of Rowling’s net worth have been made public.

Rowling has kept her wealth secret and denies being a billionaire. Her media spokesperson also declined to comment on these numbers. However, looking at the amount of assets she owns, everyone realizes that this is not a small number.

British author JK Rowling and the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” at the Natural History Museum in London on July 20, 2007. Photo: REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

In 2012, Rowling said: “I was so poor that I had to live on government benefits in England. But that is also what helped me write this book.”

She finished writing ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in 1995, but the book was initially rejected many times. Two years later, with great difficulty, literary agent Christopher Little accepted her book and agreed to print only 500 copies with Bloomsbury, for a small amount of 2,500 pounds. By 1999, the book had sold 300,000 copies in the UK.

In the US, Rowling sold the book to Scholastic for more than $100,000 – an unprecedented amount at the time. Thanks to that, she was able to buy her first apartment.

Since the release of the Harry Potter series, 500 million copies of books have been sold worldwide. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ has broken the record for best-selling fantasy book of all time.

According to estimates by The New York Times, the novel has grossed at least $7.7 billion. If Rowling took a 15% cut of a standard author’s royalties, she would earn at least $1.15 billion.

Book sales continue to increase steadily to this day. All seven books in the series ranked first in the most-read fiction e-book category on Amazon.

In 1998, Rowling announced that she had signed a seven-figure deal with Warner Bros to adapt the books into films. The first film grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide and the series over $7.7 billion. If Rowling received a 10% net profit deal, she could potentially earn $770 million.

Revolving around this “empire”, in 2012, she also launched the Harry Potter website Pottermore and brought in $19 million in revenue in 2016, through many partnerships to sell e-books and audiobooks.

In the same year, the play ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was a success on Broadway. It earned $2.3 million in ticket sales in just one week – the most of any musical in Broadway’s history.

Following that, in 2016, the Harry Potter spin-off series Fantastic Beasts was released in theaters and continued to gross $814 million worldwide. According to Forbes estimates, Rowling still received $10 million from that.

The entire Harry Potter film series is the third highest-grossing film series of all time, grossing nearly $9.1 billion as of 2019.

But Rowling’s biggest source of revenue remains Universal Studios’ Wizarding World attractions, which opened in 2010. Forbes estimates she has received millions of dollars from licensing them.

Not to mention Rowling’s other novels that later recorded good sales, some were also sold copyrighted and turned into movies. According to Forbes, she may have earned $60 million between June 2019 and May 2020, making her the second highest-paid author in the world during that period.

With this huge source of income, Rowling has bought houses all over Scotland and England. Meanwhile, her main residence is in Edinburgh. The author reportedly sold her eight-bedroom 19th-century Victorian mansion in 2012 for more than $3.6 million.

The couple moved to another neighborhood in Edinburgh in 2009. The newer house is described as a “million-pound 17th-century mansion” surrounded by 30-foot-high hedges. On campus there are also two small tree houses, recreated like miniature Hogwarts schools, built for about 330 thousand dollars for the children.

In Scotland, Rowling also owns a 162-acre Perthshire estate, worth $2.5 million. It has a library, seven bedrooms, with drawing room, copper-domed swimming pool and 24/7 security guard.

After purchasing, she installed 4-foot-high security gates and renovated the house in 2020 to convert the drawing room into a bathroom and add a new kitchen.

In the UK, she bought her childhood home – located in Tutshill, Gloucestershire, England, near the Forest of Dean – for $499,554, and also owned a six-bedroom house in Kensington, London in 2000 for $5.6 million.

But real estate isn’t the only thing Rowling spends money on. In the mid-2010s, she purchased a 56-foot luxury yacht for $29 million, previously owned by Johnny Depp. The boat has three decks and four bedrooms, which she rented for $130,000 a week and sold for $20 million in 2016.

Rowling also “spends” on trips. She is often spotted in the Galapagos, Mauritius and Seychelles, or sometimes summers in the Hamptons. According to NY Mag, she was willing to pay $500,000 for a vacation villa there in July and August 2006.

Rowling has also made many charitable donations over the years, totaling at least $150 million.

She contributed $16 million to establish the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh in honor of her mother, who passed away when she was just 25 years old. In addition, she also founded the Lumos Foundation, an international organization for children’s rights; Volant Charitable Trust, which works to reduce social deprivation across Scotland; and Comic Relief, an anti-poverty charity.

Rowling has also made many charitable donations over the years, totaling at least $150 million.

She contributed $16 million to establish the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh in honor of her mother, who passed away when she was just 25 years old. In addition, she also founded the Lumos Foundation, an international organization for children’s rights; Volant Charitable Trust, which works to reduce social deprivation across Scotland; and Comic Relief, an anti-poverty charity.

Author JK Rowling lights up the Empire State Building to mark the launch of children’s nonprofit Lumos in 2015, in New York. Photo: Evan Agostini / Invision / AP

More recently, she donated $1.25 million to the homeless and victims of domestic violence during the pandemic.