Welfare of households; key figures
| Household characteristics | Periods | Number of households (x 1 000) | Mean disposable income (1 000 euro) | Mean equivalised income (1 000 euro) | Mean expenditures (1 000 euro) | Median wealth (1 000 euro) | Low-income households (%) | Income inequality (Gini coefficient) | Wealth inequality (Gini coefficient) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Single person household | 2023* | 3,164.0 | 30.5 | 30.6 | . | 17.7 | 5.9 | 0.286 | 0.790 |
| Source: CBS. | |||||||||
Table explanation
This table aims to show the distribution of welfare of private households, measured by their income, expenditures and wealth.
The figures in this table are broken down to different household characteristics.
The population consists of all private households with income on January 1st of the reporting year.
In the population for the subject low-income households, both student households and households with income only for a part of the year have been excluded.
Data available from: 2011
Status of the figures:
The figures for 2011 to 2022 are final. The figures for 2023 are preliminary.
Changes as of 1 November 2024:
Figures for 2022 are finalized. Preliminary figures for 2023 are added.
Changes as of 9 February 2022:
The preliminary figures for 2020 concerning ‘Mean expenditures’ have been added.
The topic 'Mean expenditures' only contains 5-annual data, for 2015 and 2020. The data for 2015 for this topic were still preliminary and are now final.
When will new figures be published?
New figures will be published in the fall of 2025.
Description topics
- Number of households
- Number of private households with a known income on January 1st of the reporting year.
A private household is a collection of one or more people who share the same living space and provide in their own everyday needs in a private, non-commercial way. - Mean disposable income
- Mean disposable income per household.
The disposable income is defined as the gross income minus current transfers paid (like alimony payments to an ex-partner), income insurance premiums, health insurance premiums and tax on income and wealth. Gross income is the sum of income from labour, income from self-employment, income from property, payments from the government and other receipts (like alimony payments by an ex-partner). - Mean equivalised income
- Mean equivalised disposable income per household.
The equivalised income is the disposable income corrected for differences in household size and composition. The correction factor used reflects the advantages of scale of households with two or more members. The single person household is used as the reference household. The equivalised income is a measure of the prosperity of (members of) a household. - Mean expenditures
- The mean yearly amount spent by households.
Households spend money on goods and services to fulfil their needs. Such expenditures may have been done in the Netherlands as well as abroad. - Median wealth
- Ranking households according to their wealth, the median is equal to the wealth of the central household. Half of the households possess more wealth, the other half has less.
Wealth equals assets minus debts. Assets are financial assets (bank and saving credits and securities), real estate and enterprise capital. Debts are amongst other things mortgage debt and consumptive loans. - Low-income households
- Number of households having an income below the low-income threshold as a percentage of all households in a category.
The low-income threshold represents the same purchasing power for all households and is adjusted annually for price changes using the consumer price index (CPI). The level is based on the welfare benefit level for a single person in 1979. - Income inequality
- The Gini coefficient is a common measure for inequality. The value of the Gini coefficient varies between 0 (everyone has the same income) and 1 (one household has all the income, the others have none).
The Gini coefficient is calculated as the half of the mean income difference between households, divided by the mean income. In case of negative incomes, the Gini coefficient is normalized. The coefficient is based on the standardized disposable income. - Wealth inequality
- The Gini coefficient is a common measure for inequality. The value of the Gini coefficient varies between 0 (everyone has the same income) and 1 (one household has all the income, the others have none).
The Gini coefficient is calculated as the half of the mean wealth difference between households, divided by the mean wealth. In case of negative wealth, the Gini coefficient is normalized.