5% of Italian families own almost half of the wealth

Can it be said that Italians have become poor? The Bank of Italy, in cooperation with the European Central Bank, with A Report on distribution accounts relating to the wealth of Italian and European families “Key inequality indicators remained essentially stable between 2017 and 2022, after rising between 2010 and 2016,” he claims.

But there is a number that is decreasing and this indicates a The potential for increased economic and social inequality affecting families in our country: It comes down to it The median net worth, which fell from around €200,000 to just over €150,000.

Italian families have witnessed this decline in their wealth, starting with the sovereign debt crisis

without ever being able to return to the levels of well-being and wealth that existed in 2011. Overall in the euro area, average net worth reached a minimum of around €100,000 in 2013 and then gradually rose to exceed €140,000 in 2022.

In the same period, between 2011 and 2022, the Gini index, a synthetic measure of the degree of inequality in distribution, actually had a stable trend, only rising from 0.67 to 0.71. instead of, The share of net wealth owned by the richest five percent of households rose from 40% to 48%, while the poorest 50% owned less than 8%.
However, Italy is below the EU average in terms of wealth concentration, at the same levels as France and behind Germany which appears to be “the country with the highest degree of inequality in terms of net wealth” as we read in the same Bank of Italy report.
If you look at Household net worthyou can read it in the data An increase in the Eurozone by 29% in the last 5 yearswith better growth numbers for homeowners than non-homeowners.

The increase in household wealth is accompanied by only a modest reduction in inequalityThis is partly because homeowners, who represent more than 60% of the population, have benefited from rising housing prices. The net worth of these families who own real estate has increased by 27% in the past five years. While the wealth of those who do not own a home (40% of the population) increased by only 17%.

However, the richest 5% of the population saw a slight decline in their wealth between 2016 and 2023, but they still own more than 43% of total household wealth in the euro area..
Similar considerations also apply to our country, where Half of Italians' wealth is in homesSpecifically, homeownership accounts for three-quarters of wealth for below-average households, that is, for the poorest 50 percent. For the “central” or “middle” class, which corresponds to those households with net worth between the 50th and 90th percentile, real estate represents 70% of assets. While for the richest 10% of families, the wealth generated by real estate represents just over a third.

se Less wealthy families, along with a middle class that has seen its assets and purchasing power eroded in recent years, can rely primarily on deposits and home ownership as a source of wealth.more The portfolio of the richest families is diverse “Because – as we read in the Bankitalia report – almost a third of wealth is represented by risk capital linked to production, in other words Shares, shares real assets allocated to production; While one-fifth of wealth consists of “Mutual Funds and Insurance Policies”.