Poverty / ¼ of the total wealth of Greece is in the hands of the richest 1%

Unfortunately, extremely obvious is the wealth inequality throughout the world, with the Europe not be an exception. The richest 10% of the Old Continent owns 67% of the wealth, while half of European adults own only 1.2% of the wealth.

The numbers for our country are relentless. In GREECEthe 10% of the richest have in their hands more than half of the total wealth, with the 1% of the richest own ¼ of the country’s wealth.

According to the report Global Wealth Report 2023 of Credit Suisse and UBS, the extent to which wealth is unevenly distributed varies significantly from country to country. Wealth is defined as the value of financial assets plus real assets (mainly homes) owned by households, minus their debts. In the relevant tables, the higher the coefficient, the greater the unequal distribution of wealth.

Between 36 European countries studied, wealth inequality in 2022 ranged from 50.8 in Slovakia to 87.4 in Sweden.

Excluding Iceland, wealth inequality was quite high in the Nordic countries. Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden topped the table, with Sweden topping the list.

Germany had the highest wealth inequality score (77.2) among the EU’s ‘Big Four’ economic powers, followed by France (70.3), Spain (68.3) and Italy (67.8). . The United Kingdom, a former EU member still considered one of the “Big Four” on the European continent, had a score of 70.2.

1% owns 1/4 of the wealth of Greece

In GREECE wealth inequality stands at 68.1%at roughly the same levels as Spain and Montenegro.

In our country, the richest 10% own 55.1% of the wealth, i.e. more than half.

According to the data, 5% own 44.2% of the wealth and 1% 25% of the wealth, i.e. 1/4 of the total wealth of Greece.

One of the most important drivers of wealth inequality is the composition of assets, according to Eszter Sándor and Dr Carlos Vacas-Soriano, research directors at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). In particular, the home ownership rates between countries is one of the main factors contributing to differences in the distribution of wealth.

“Countries with higher levels of home ownership tend to have lower levels of wealth inequality, while countries where access to other financial assets is more widespread tend to have higher wealth inequality,” the researchers told Euronews Business.

Sándor and Vacas-Soriano also stated that voluntary pensions and life insurance play an important role in wealth inequalities.

“In Western European countries, people are more likely to be able to save for retirement, both because they have a higher income and because they have better access to voluntary means of post-retirement income than citizens of the East and of southern Europe”, they said.