A survey by Banque Centrale de Luxembourg shows that real estate and deposits remain the pillars of household wealth in Luxembourg despite a significant decline in their net worth.
Last April, Banque Centrale de Luxembourg (BCL) published its “Luxembourg Household Finance and Consumption Survey”. The survey was carried out in 2023 among 3.699 households living in Luxembourg.
Gross household assets show wealth security
In 2023, real assets (vehicles, real estate, valuables) accounted for 81% of all assets held by households in Luxembourg, with an average value of €1.058 million per household.
Vehicles were the most common real asset (held by 84% of households), followed by primary residence (held by 62% of households). 32% of households owned other real estate and 29% owned valuables. In terms of value, real estate constitutes 91% of the value of households’ real assets (main residence 59%; and other real estate 32%).
In 2023, financial assets accounted for 19% of all assets held by households. In terms of value, financial assets consisted of bank deposits (45%), risky assets, such as investment funds (19%) and listed shares (9%), and other financial assets (27%). The latter includes shares of unlisted companies, accounts managed by investment specialists, loans to friends or family, private companies, government bonds and voluntary pensions/life insurance. The most common type of financial asset remains bank deposits held by 97% of households, with an average value of €249.000 per household.
In the EU, “equity and investment fund shares accounted for the largest share (36.6%), in 2024,” the European Commission says. “This was followed by currency and deposits (30.6%) and insurance, pensions and standardised guarantees (26.9%). Smaller shares were recorded for other accounts receivable/payable (2.7%), other instruments (2.7%) and loans (0.4%)”.
For Mihaela Mercier, Coordinator of the Investor Forum committee, in charge of financial education projects at ALFI, Luxembourg households are not driven by aggressive speculation. With a large share of wealth concentrated in bank deposits and the main residence, the Luxembourg population remains very attached to wealth security, she believes.
A significant decline in net wealth
In 2023, the median value of household net wealth (after deduction of debt) was €676.000. “Compared to 2021, this represents a decrease of 6% in nominal terms and 15% in real terms (after adjusting for consumer price inflation),” BCL said.
In addition, the average value of financial assets also decreased significantly (-23%) compared to 2021: “These declines in net wealth mainly reflect declines in the value of real assets and financial assets, which were larger than the decrease in debt,” BCL adds.
For Mihaela Mercier, who is also a member of the Investor Education platform at the level of EFAMA – Luxembourg households continue to have a relatively cautious profile in their relationship with money. “Their direct participation in financial markets remains more limited than in other countries. In other words, many still favour stability and tangible assets,” she notes.
“Their behaviour shows caution, the search for security and the desire to build stable wealth over the long term,” she continues. “The current context is forcing more households to think about the need to diversify their investments, as it is becoming more difficult to preserve one’s financial security, in a context of rising inflation and interest rates.”
Remarkable wealth inequality
In 2023, the wealthiest one percent of households in Luxembourg owned around 13% of total net wealth, according to BCL. “The wealthiest five percent owned 33%, the wealthiest 10 percent owned 47%, and the top 20 percent owned 63% (each of these top shares is slightly smaller than in 2021)”. The bottom 50 percent of households owned less than 9% of total net wealth (unchanged from previous years).
“Furthermore, only 2% of households in Luxembourg reported negative net wealth (more debt than assets) in 2023. Towards the upper end of the distribution, the value of net wealth increases substantially,” BCL shows.
Figures from the European Central Bank (ECB) show a remarkable inequality in wealth distribution across Europe. “The top 10% of households in the euro area held 57.4% of total net wealth during the first quarter of 2025, while the top 5% alone accounted for 44.5%,” ECB says. “The bottom 50% of households held around 5% of wealth”.
In Luxembourg, “the wealth inequality remained stable in 2023, with a Gini coefficient of 0.37% compared to 0.36% in 2021 for net income,” BCL says. The Gini coefficient measures wealth inequality in a country with a number between 0 and 1. A value of 0 represents complete equality. And a higher value indicates greater inequality.
According to the UBS’s 2025 Global Wealth Report however, Luxembourg records a Gini coefficient of 0.55% in 2024, among the lowest wealth inequality distribution in the EU, Sweden being the country with the most uneven (0.75%), compared to Belgium (0.47%) and Slovakia (0.38%).
Limited available data
The BCL survey 2023 is the only source of detailed data in Luxembourg on the balance sheets of individual households. However, it does not detail the exact distribution of assets (real estate vs. financial), only for the richest 5%.
Similarly, it does not provide any specific information on their consumption, savings, investment or luxury spending behaviour. “Since then, various macroeconomic developments, including changes in inflation and interest rates, have affected households’ wealth and debt,” BCL writes. “The impact of these developments on household finances will be evaluated in the next wave, which will be conducted from October to December 2026”.
This article was published in the 10th edition of Forbes Luxembourg.
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