Average net worth by age in the Netherlands

Median and mean net worth by age

Source: CBS StatLine, tabel 83835NED (Vermogen van huishoudens), reference date 1 januari 2024 (voorlopige cijfers). USD indicative at €1 ≈ $1.08. CBS-tabel bijgewerkt 8 oktober 2025 · door ons gecontroleerd op 01-09-2026 via de CBS OData-API.

Find your own number: what share of the Netherlands is below you

The table above answers “what is typical for my age”. This one answers the opposite question — you know your own figure and want to know where it places you. Household counts are published by CBS; the cumulative column is summed from them.

Read it like this: with €200,000 of net worth, about 57.2% of Dutch households sit below you. For the full percentile ladder — every tenth from the 5th to the 95th — see the Dutch-language percentile page. In short: the 25th percentile is €5,700, the median €135,500, the 75th €379,100 and the 95th €1,056,800.

Owning versus renting: the biggest split in Dutch wealth

No other characteristic divides the distribution so sharply. Households that own their home have a median net worth of €334,600; renters €4,200 — a factor of roughly eighty. Part of that is a real mechanism: a mortgage is a forced savings plan with leverage, because repayments build equity while price growth acts on the whole property value rather than only on your deposit. Part of it is selection, because buying requires a deposit and a stable income to begin with. The data cannot separate the two, and any page that tells you it can is overreaching. Germany shows the same pattern at a different scale — owners there hold roughly 21 to 25 times what renters do, which we cover on the German renter-versus-owner page.

Why the Dutch figure looks low

Net worth is hump-shaped over the life cycle — it climbs from €13,500 for 25–34s to a peak of €276,900 at 65–74, then falls back as wealth is spent down or passed on. But the headline is how low the Dutch median sits for such a rich country, and there are two structural reasons. Dutch households carry some of the highest mortgage debt in Europe — mortgage interest was tax-deductible for years, which encouraged large, slowly-repaid loans — so net worth (assets minus debt) stays modest even for owners. And these figures exclude occupational and collective pension entitlements: the Netherlands runs one of the world's largest funded pension systems, so a huge slice of real Dutch wealth never appears in this number. Read the median as a floor, not the full picture.

For euro-area comparison: the ECB HFCS figures

CBS is the current and finer source, but it only covers the Netherlands. To compare like-for-like with other euro-area countries you need one harmonised survey, which is what the ECB's Household Finance and Consumption Survey provides. The figures below are from Wave 2021 and are labelled as such — they are older and lower than the CBS numbers above, and they are here for comparability, not currency.

On that harmonised basis the Dutch median of €105,600 sat below the euro-area median of €123,500 and almost level with Germany's €106,700 — but for the opposite reason: high Dutch homeownership offset by heavy mortgage debt, against a German figure held down by a low ownership rate. Comparisons are only valid within the same wave, which is why we do not mix these numbers with the CBS ones above.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average net worth in the Netherlands?

The median Dutch household net worth is €135,500 and the mean is €333,500 (CBS, reference date 1 January 2024). The median is the better benchmark — half of households hold less — while the mean sits almost two and a half times higher because a small number of very wealthy households pull it up. Net worth here means assets including the main residence, minus debts including the mortgage, per household.

What is the average net worth by age in the Netherlands?

Median household net worth by age of the main earner (CBS, 1 January 2024): under 25 €300; 25–34 €13,500; 35–44 €120,100; 45–54 €187,400; 55–64 €250,200; 65–74 €276,900; 75–84 €265,300; 85+ €139,400. The jump that matters is between 25–34 and 35–44 — close to a tenfold increase in a decade. That is not mostly saving; it is buying a house and paying down the mortgage.

How much net worth puts me in the top 10% in the Netherlands?

CBS does not publish percentile thresholds, but its published figures bracket it hard: the 85th percentile is €543,400 and the 95th is €1,056,800, so the top-10% threshold sits between them. Our own estimate, by interpolating inside the published €500,000–€1 million band, is roughly €726,000 — clearly an estimate, not an official number. At the other end, 451,800 households (5.5%) hold €1 million or more, and 1,022,700 (12.4%) have negative net worth.

Why is Dutch net worth low for such a wealthy country?

Two structural reasons, and neither means Dutch households are poor. First, Dutch mortgage debt is among the heaviest in Europe — mortgage interest was fully deductible for years, which encouraged large, slowly-amortising loans — so net worth stays modest even for owners. Second, and larger: occupational pension entitlements are excluded from these figures. The Netherlands runs one of the world's biggest funded pension systems, so a very large share of real Dutch wealth never appears in this number. Read the median as a floor, not the full picture.

Why does this page show both CBS and ECB figures?

Because they answer different questions and we would rather show both than pretend one covers everything. CBS is the Dutch national register: current (1 January 2024), complete, and finer-grained — eight age bands rather than six. The ECB's Household Finance and Consumption Survey is a harmonised sample survey across the euro area, so it is the only basis on which the Netherlands can be compared like-for-like with Germany, Italy or Spain. The CBS figures lead this page; the HFCS figures are labelled with their wave and used strictly for the international comparison.

Does owning a home really make that much difference?

It is the single hardest split in the data. Households owning their home have a median net worth of €334,600; renters €4,200 — a factor of roughly eighty. Some of that is causation and some is selection: a mortgage is a forced savings plan with leverage, since your repayments build equity while price growth acts on the whole property value rather than just your deposit, but buying also requires equity and a stable income in the first place. Germany shows the same pattern with a different number — owners there hold roughly 21 to 25 times what renters do.