Anyone who lives in their own home and has at least partially paid off their mortgage probably belongs to the richest half of Germans: according to calculations by the European Central Bank (ECB), they have a wealth of more than 106,000 euros, writes the newspaper “Periódico Bild. Even with a half-paid apartment in the countryside, you will probably reach the so-called average wealth. In short, life insurance also counts in these statistics.

In most other countries that use the euro, you would be significantly poorer at €106,000 compared to your neighbors. Even in Slovakia the average wealth is 10,000 euros higher. And this despite the fact that the average income of the inhabitants there is only a third of that of the Germans. As in many countries, they convert lower incomes into higher assets than the inhabitants of the Federal Republic.

The ECB figures illustrate five conclusions in detail:

1. Only 15th place in a European comparison

In a European comparison, Germany performs quite poorly in terms of average wealth: only 15th, behind Slovakia and ahead of Greece. Small countries top the statistics because statistics rise or fall more easily than in the populous Federal Republic. But also in Spain, France and Italy the majority of people own more than in Germany, despite having lower incomes.

1. Luxembourg 739,000 euros
2. Malta 333,000 euros
3. Ireland 315,000 euros
4. Cyprus 298,000 euros
5. Belgium 277,000 euros
6. Netherlands 229,000 euros
7. Spain 197,000 euros
8. France 185,000 euros
9. Italy 161,000 euros
10. Slovenia 154,000 euros
11. Austria 153,000 euros
12. Finland 134,000 euros
13. Portugal 126,000 euros
14. Slovakia 116,000 euros
15. Germany 106,000 euros
16. Greece 97,000 euros
17. Estonia 86,000 euros
18. Hungary 69,000 euros
19. Lithuania 69,000 euros
20. Latvia 37,000 euros

2. Few homeowners

The fact that Germans have relatively little wealth compared to the EU is mainly due to high rental rates. The value of real estate has increased significantly in recent years. They also make up most of this country's wealth. But since less than half of Germans live within its four walls, not everyone has benefited from this.

3. Germany is ten years behind

Despite high incomes compared to the EU, wealth in the Federal Republic is actually below the euro area median: half of all households paying in euros have assets above 157,000 euros. That's almost 50 percent more than in 2013. At that time, average wealth in the euro area was about the same as that of the Federal Republic of Germany today. Germany is therefore a good ten years behind in development.

4. The top ten percent are significantly richer

The obstacle to being among the richest ten percent of the population is high: to do so, households must have at least 2.5 million euros. This means that the richest ten percent of Germans own around 25 times as much as the richest 40 or 50 percent. In between, average assets are staggered in ten percent increments as follows:

5. Inequality has recently been declining across Europe

The richest five percent of the euro area population owned a smaller share of total wealth in 2023 than in 2015: 43 instead of almost 44.5 percent. A significant decrease for this period.

The flip side of the truth, however, is that the wealth share of the richest five percent of the population had increased significantly in the years before 2015: from less than 42 percent to more than 44 percent. However, recent events point to an increasingly equitable distribution of wealth.