Number of millionaire households in Netherlands climbs to record 452,000

The number of millionaires in the Netherlands has increased again. Last year, there were 452,000 households in the Netherlands with assets worth €1 million or more, 17,000 more than the year before, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Millionaire households’ wealth mostly consists of business interests and homeownership.

Last year, 5.5 percent of households in the Netherlands had assets worth €1 million or more. The median millionaire household had assets of €1.6 million. Among non-millionaire households, the median asset worth was €110,000. Median means that half of households had more than this amount, and half had less.

Two-thirds of millionaire households in the Netherlands had assets of less than €2 million last year. A quarter had between €2 million and €5 million, and 3 percent were worth €10 million or more.

Millionaires derive the largest share of their wealth from business interests and business assets (40 percent). Another quarter comes from homes they own. “Among non-millionaire households, homeownership accounts for more than three-quarters of wealth, and significant business interests and assets 3 percent,” CBS said. According to the statistics office, the trend is that the wealthier you are, the more of your wealth is made up of business interests, and the share of homeownership decreases.

Nearly 40 percent of millionaire households are retired and get most of their income from a pension. Of those who get most of their income from work, 55 percent are self-employed, compared to 14 percent of non-millionaire households. The proportion of self-employed millionaires has fallen since 2014, when 71 percent of working millionaires were self-employed.

The provinces of Noord-Holland and Utrecht have the most millionaires relative to their populations at 7 percent of households. In the municipalities of Bloemendaal and Laren, both in Noord-Holland, a third of households are worth more than €1 million. The fewest millionaire households are in the provinces of Groningen, Flevoland, and Limburg, where less than 4 percent of households are worth more than a million euros.