Spain’s average income per capita has increased every year since 2014, when the Sovereign Debt Crisis caused a recession. In 2023, the figure amounted to ****** euros after taxes, up from ****** the previous year. Though this is the highest level to date, the increase is only slightly faster than inflation. Age and regional differences The net income per person broken down into age groups shows that young workers, aged between 16 and 29, earn almost ***** euros less annually than the national average and more than ************** euros bellow the average income of workers above **. This is to be expected, as workers gain experience and expertise as they age. However, regional differences are more remarkable. In the autonomous community with the highest average annual net income, the Basque Country, that figure exceeded ****** euros in 2023, while Murcia, which ranked as the region with the lowest average income, registered an average of approximately ****** euros per that year. Disposable income The income which remains once taxes and social security charges are deduced is known as disposable income. As of 2023, household savings as share of total disposable income in Spain stood at *** percent. However, savings in relation to disposable income are is expected to diminish in the following years. During the last decade, and particularly throughout the Spanish Sovereign Debt Crisis, the country’s households suffered from high rates of indebtedness in relation to gross disposable income. At the peak in 2013, the indebtedness ratio, the ratio of debt to annual income, exceeded *** percent. The ratio has since decreased and stood at ***** percent in the third quarter of 2022.

This statistic illustrates the events and other reasons that have motivated people to start saving for retirement in Spain as of 2020. It can be seen that turning a certain age was the most common reason mentioned amongst the people surveyed in Spain at that time, with 26 percent of respondents stating this as a key prompt to begin saving for retirement. Although this was the case, a further 29 percent stated that they had no particular reason to begin saving for retirement when they did.

In Europe, the variation in average amounts of financial wealth per adult varied considerably as of 2022, from approximately 449,000 U.S. dollars in Switzerland to roughly 1,200 U.S. dollars in Azerbaijan. In Europe, the overall average financial wealth per adult as of 2022 was 84,308 U.S. dollars. In terms of private wealth, Europe held the second highest value in the world, after North America.

What is financial wealth?

Financial wealth, also known as financial assets or liquid assets can include wealth that an individual has in the forms of cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and bank deposits. In addition to financial wealth, wealth can also be measured in other assets, called non-financial wealth. This includes physical assets, such as real estate, land, vehicles, jewelry, and art, just to name a few.

Where do most wealthy individuals live?

Individuals with a net worth over one million U.S. dollars are called high-net worth individuals (HNWI). The United States was the home country to the highest number of HNWIs in 2021. China followed, although their number of HNWIs did not even reach one third of the number in the United States. In Europe, Switzerland is the country with the highest average financial wealth per adult, but with its small population size, the number of HNWIs does not come near the numbers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy – the European countries with the highest number of HNWIs. Considering Switzerland’s small population size, however, it is the country in the world with the highest proportion of millionaires.

In Portugal, households saved approximately ** percent of their disposable income in the fourth quarter of 2024. That gross savings rate reached its highest value in the second quarter of 2020 at more than **** percent. The household savings rate in Spain, Portugal's neighbor country, also reached similar levels during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.