Inequality in Europe on the increase
In early 2025, the wealthiest 5% in the euro area held 45% of net household wealth. Wealth distribution is one of the significant indicators of equality in society. Although it is uneven in most countries, the level of inequality matters.
In the first quarter of 2025, the top 10% of households in the euro area held 57.4% of total net wealth, while the top 5% alone accounted for 44.5% according to the European Central Bank (ECB). In contrast, the bottom 50% of households only held around 5% of wealth. These figures show the remarkable inequality in wealth distribution across Europe.
But how is the wealth distributed in Europe? Which countries have the highest and lowest wealth inequality scores across Europe? And what are the main reasons driving wealth inequality differences?
Wealth distribution in Europe explained in numbers
UBS’s 2025 Global Wealth Report reveals the Gini index of wealth inequality across Europe as of 2024. The Gini coefficient measures wealth inequality in a country with a number between 0 and 1: A higher value indicates greater inequality, while a value of 0 represents complete equality.
According to the report, Sweden records the highest wealth inequality with a Gini score of 0.75, while Slovakia reports the lowest at 0.38.
In addition to Sweden, wealth inequality is also high in Turkey (0.73), Cyprus (0.72), Czechia (0.72) and Latvia (0.7), all with scores above 0.7.
At the bottom, Belgium (0.47) and Malta (0.48) follow Slovakia with Gini coefficient’s below 0.5. Among Europe’s top five economies, Germany has the highest level of wealth inequality at 0.68, while the scores are much closer in the other countries: Spain (0.56) is the lowest, followed by Italy (0.57), the UK (0.58), and France (0.59).
The wealth shares of the richest 5% of the population are another good indicator of wealth distribution. Among 20 countries, this share ranges from 30.8% in Malta to 54% in Latvia in the first quarter of 2025, according to the ECB.
Apart from Malta, Cyprus (31.4%), the Netherlands (32.8%), Greece (33%), and Slovakia (34.4%) report the lowest wealth inequality.
In contrast, after Latvia, Austria (53.1%) and Lithuania (51.7%) have the highest shares, with the top 5% holding more than half of total household net wealth.
The gap widens
Just consider this: the richest 3,600 Europeans own as much wealth as the poorest 181,000,000 — roughly the combined populations of Germany, Spain, and Italy (Oxfam). In nearly every European country, the richest 1% controls at least 20% of national wealth.
And the gap is only widening. In the first half of 2025 alone, Europe’s 500 billionaires increased their wealth by €400 billion — in just six months.
