Wealth distribution in Belgium appears to be improving, according to experimental data from the Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), released by the National Bank of Belgium (BNB) on Wednesday.
The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality in net household wealth, saw a slight drop from 71% in 2010 to 68% at the end of 2023, indicating that household incomes in Belgium are slightly less unequal than previously. Belgium performed slightly better than the Eurozone average of 71% at the end of last year.
However, the wealth gap is still sizeable. Over half (56%) of net wealth is in the hands of the richest 10% of Belgian households – down from 59% in 2010. At the other end of the scale, the poorest 50% of households share just 8.2% of the nation’s wealth – a slight increase from about 7% in 2010. This statistic remains stable at around 5% for the Eurozone.
In broader terms, median net wealth totalled €268,000 by the end of 2023 in Belgium, up from slightly under €200,000 in 2010. In the Eurozone, it stood at €150,000.
These statistics are from the DWA, which are designed to complement macroeconomic data from national sectoral accounts with microeconomic data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS).
They are produced under the auspices of the European Central Bank (ECB) and include financial assets (deposits, debt securities, listed shares, unlisted shares, investment funds, life insurances), non-financial assets (residential property and others), and household liabilities (mortgages and other loans).
