From Iceland — Top 5% Earners Own 17% Of Country's Assets

Top 5% Earners Own 17% Of Country’s Assets

Published November 18, 2011

People in the top 5% of the highest income bracket have enough assets to equate to 17% of the national total, while the bottom 10% own about 4.7%.
The national tax office compiled data based on tax returns to arrive at some interesting results about how much of the country’s total household assets are in the hands of the highest and lowest income earners. Their data is based on 2010 figures, filed by some 245,460 individual and household tax returns.
The combined assets of every household in the country equals about 3.466 billion ISK. Of this money, those in the top 5% income bracket possess a combined total of 573.6 billion ISK, or about 17% of the total sum. They also comprise 22.1% of the amount of money deposited by individuals into the country’s banks. These accounts have on average about 10 million ISK each, with the remaining assets in real estate. Along the same lines, 42% of overseas properties owned by Icelanders belong to this top 5%.
Meanwhile, the bottom 10% income earners own a combined total of 165.2 billion ISK in assets, or about 4.7% of the Icelandic household total. Most of these assets are in real estate. While they have a combined total of 21.8 billion ISK in their collective bank accounts, they also have 111.5 billion ISK in debts, most of which are due to real estate loans.

Support The Reykjavík Grapevine!
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!

Show Me More!