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Austria’s super rich are becoming ‘poorer’

Austria’s richest people are not quite as rich as they used to be, although with the country’s wealthiest family still worth €35 billion they’re probably not pinching the pennies just yet.

Published: 27 May 2016 10:00 CEST

Austria's super rich are becoming 'poorer'

One of Austria's richest people Ferdinand Piëch. Stuart Mentiply/Wikimedia.

That is according to the latest rich list published by Austrian magazine Trend, whose ranking of Austria’s wealthiest people once again puts the Porsche and Piëch family in the top spot.

The auto industry Porsche-Piëch clan managed to hold onto first place despite a €30 billion loss to their assets as a result of the diesel emissions scandal that hit their Volkswagen group.

In fact, things are not looking great for many of the country’s super rich. After seeing years of increasing wealth, the top 100 richest Austrians are now becoming “poorer”.

Once you calculate all the incoming and outgoings of the group, together they have seen their assets shrink by around €25 billion, although their collective wealth still hovers comfortably around the €145 billion mark.

Of that, the ten richest people or families account for 78.2 billion, with Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz (€8.25 Bn) and the industry-owning Flick family (€7.35 Bn) coming in second and third place respectively.

The full list can be found in the latest issue of Trend.

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Richest in Germany own around two thirds of country's wealth

Photo: DPA

The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has found that the richest one percent in Germany own 35 percent of the total wealth in Germany – instead of just under 22 percent as previously thought, reported Spiegel on Wednesday.

And the top 10 percent of the population do not own 59 percent of total assets, as previously estimated – but around two thirds or 66 percent.

To put it into context, nobody in the bottom 50 percent of the German population has a net worth over €22,800. On average, the poorest 50 percent of the German population has a net worth of €3,700.

Moreover, the so-called Gini coefficient (used to measure inequality) is higher in Germany than previously thought. It is 0.81 instead of 0.78. If this number is zero, all households in a society would have an equally high income. If it is 1, the entire income goes to a single household, while everyone else receives nothing.

“Germany's already high wealth inequality has been significantly underestimated,” said Johannes König, one of the authors. “We are now seeing for the first time a more realistic picture of the distribution at the top.”

READ ALSO: This is how many millionaires live in Germany

Millionaires significantly more satisfied than the rest of the population

DIW researchers developed took a closer look at the group of wealthy millionaires in Germany.

This group includes an above-average number of men (69 percent) who are older and better educated than the average population, and who live for the most part in western Germany. Around three quarters of the millionaires are self-employed. A large part of their wealth is invested in company shares.

According to Zeit Online, the respondents earn more than €7,600 net per month, more than three times the average. Only 14 percent have a migration background. For the rest of the population this applies to every fourth person.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, scientists found that wealthy millionaires are significantly more satisfied than the rest of the population. Only with regard to leisure time was satisfaction lower.

READ ALSO: Who belongs to the top 10 percent of earners in Germany?

According to the authors, this is due to the significantly higher workload. The survey found millionaires work an average of 47 hours a week – around 10 hours more than the rest of the population.

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