Richest 10% of Dutch control over half of the wealth in the country

Households in the Netherlands had over 2.6 trillion euros in assets at the start of 2023. The top 10 percent of the country's wealthiest households owned 56 percent of those assets. Ten percent of the assets in the Netherlands were in the hands of the richest 0.1 percent, equivalent to about 8,200 households, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Wednesday. They hold 260 billion euros in assets.

At the start of 2023, the richest 10 percent of households had almost 1.5 trillion euros in assets. These households are worth a minimum of 680,000 euros, the CBS data showed. Roughly 40 percent of the people in this group are retired, and a third are working as employees. The remaining 27 percent are self-employed entrepreneurs.

The other 90 percent of households had almost 1.2 trillion euros. That includes households with negative assets. The poorest 10 percent had more debts than assets. On balance, this group had negative assets of 38 billion euros. “The next two asset groups had assets of around 0 euros,” CBS said.

Almost 60 percent of Dutch households owned their own home in 2023. For the majority of these households, their owner-occupied home was also the biggest of their assets. The richer households also have other assets. “For the 10 percent highest assets, 30 percent of the assets consisted of material investments. Within the wealthiest 1 percent, this was 54 percent.”

The lowest wealth group, with negative assets, mainly consists of people in paid employment (69 percent), but also includes a relatively high number of self-employed people (10 percent). Benefit recipients are more strongly represented in the second and third groups, with assets of around 0 euros. The highest wealth groups consist mainly of pensioners and self-employed.

The share of wealth controlled by the rich in the Netherlands has decreased annually since 2015. In that year, the wealthiest 10 percent of households controlled 70 percent of the assets, compared to 56 percent in 2023.

The wealth share of the top 1 percent was 32 percent in 2015 and 23 percent in 2023. The share of the top 0.1 percent dropped from 13 to 10 percent in that period.