First Cisl, Italian household wealth grows less than the EU average

Over the past thirteen years, the total wealth of Italian households has grown less than the euro area average and has lost out to that of the Germans and French. From December 2012 to June 2025, the increase was about 20.6 per cent, against 45.1 per cent in France and 108.2 per cent in Germany, while the euro area average stood at 66.2 per cent. The data emerge from the analysis conducted by First Cisl's Fiba Foundation on the data provided by the ECB on distributed wealth.

Considering that the currency revaluation index was 1.22 during the period under review, Italian households lost about 2 per cent of wealth in real terms. The report recalls that the net wealth of Italian households as a whole, amounting to EUR 10,991.5 billion in 2025, represents 16.6 per cent of that of the euro area, down, however, from 22.9 per cent in 2012. The indebtedness of Italian households, on the other hand, is equal to about 10.1% of the euro area (792.3 billion out of 7,825.5), and grew by 13.3% in the period under review, compared to 27.9% in the euro area, 39.5% in Germany and 52.6% in France.

Looking at the wealth per household, this was higher at the end of 2012 (at about 375.6 thousand euro) than that of French and German households (325.1 and 228.5 thousand euro respectively), while in mid-2025 it was lower (438.7 thousand euro compared to 442.2 thousand euro of the French and 461.6 thousand euro of the Germans).

The result is that Italian society is becoming polarised: based on data as of mid-2025, the 50% of the population owns just 7.4% of the wealth, the 60% stops at 12%, while the richest 10% controls 59.9%. Even the richest 5% hold over 49.4% of the total wealth. The latter is the highest figure among the large European countries. Only Austria, Croatia and Lithuania record a higher level of wealth concentration.

The myth of Italians as a people of savers no longer holds water. In fact, Eurostat data show that the gross household savings rate, which was already slightly lower to begin with, has grown less for Italian households than the European average in general and French and German households in particular. As of June 2025, the Italian figure (12.3%) is well below both the Eurozone average (15.4%) and that of Germany (19.2%) and France (18.7%).