Ageing and the distribution of wealth in Europe

Working Paper 2025-685

Abstract

The present study analyses the impact of ageing on wealth inequality in fifteen European countries by exploiting the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for the years 2010 and 2021. For this aim, we use recentered influence regressions to estimate influence of ageing and other key covariates on the Gini index of net wealth and wealth components. When analysing the overall wealth of the countries, no clear impact of ageing on net wealth inequality is found. However, ageing appears to contribute to rising inequality when its main components—real assets, financial assets, and debt—are examined. The evidence suggests that the magnitude of the effect has increased over time. When considering individual countries separately, ageing appears to have an increasing impact on net wealth inequality, as well as on the inequality of its main components in countries experiencing more advanced population ageing, such as Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Authors: Javier Olivera, Jan De Mulder.