Wealth disparities between Finland’s richest and poorest households are widening a report Statistics Finland.
The FICORA revealed that the median net worth of households was 104,000 in 2019, but 25 per cent of households had net worth of more than € 257,900, compared with less than € 9,400 in the second quarter.
Net worth refers to the net balance of a household or the value of household assets less liabilities. Household assets include items such as bank accounts, pension funds, investments, assets or vehicles.
The richest were households aged 65–74, with an average net worth of about 214,800, more than double the median. The report added that wealth is concentrated in the richest ten per cent, which owned almost half of all net assets in 2019.
The richest 10 per cent of Finns have seen their share of net worth gradually but steadily rising from 36.6 per cent in 1988 to 43.9 per cent in 2009 to 49.6 per cent in 2019, according to Statistics Finland.
At the other end of the scale, 50 per cent of households own about 5.4 per cent of net worth. This has fallen from 10.2% in 1988.
Property is the main source of wealth
According to the data, the most commonly owned asset was bank deposits held by 98 per cent of households. The next most commonly owned assets were cars or other means of transport (72 per cent of households), homes (65 per cent) and listed shares and fund shares (43 per cent).
Owner-occupied dwellings were the most significant asset in value, accounting for almost half of all holdings. The second most significant were other dwellings, such as holiday homes, which accounted for more than 10 per cent of total assets.
The increase in asset differences is partly due to differences in the value of dwellings across Finland, as house prices have risen more than in the rest of the country, especially in the Greater Helsinki area. Rising stock prices have also helped to further enrich the richest households.
The data also showed that three out of five households were indebted, of which about 16 per cent were more than three times their total income in 2019. One in four indebted households was indebted in excess of 75 per cent of the value of assets.
Source: The Nordic Page
