On Monday, 17 March 2025, the European Central Bank (ECB) published for the first time experimental statistics on household wealth distribution for Croatia, compiled under Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA).
DWA links household-level information from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) to macroeconomic data from the Quarterly Sector Accounts (QSA). By combining these distinct datasets, DWA offers quarterly series of statistical indicators on household wealth distribution for the euro area and some non-euro area EU Member States.
The methodology and results of the experimental calculation of these indicators were developed and compiled by the Expert Group on Distributional Financial Accounts (EG DFA) within the European System of Central Banks.
Data will be compiled on a quarterly basis and published five months after the end of each period. Experimental data are sufficiently reliable for analytical and policy-making purposes, but are based on a number of assumptions.
DWA provides data on net wealth, total assets and liabilities of households and their components. While quarterly sector accounts present the components of wealth at the aggregate level for the household sector as a whole, DWA classifies households by selected net wealth quintiles as well as according to the employment status of the household reference person and the ownership of the main dwelling.
Through DWA, it is possible to analyse, for example, the dynamics of the distribution of total net wealth and housing wealth among households. Figure 1 shows household net wealth in Croatia from the second quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2024, broken down by net wealth quintiles. Household net wealth in Croatia increased steadily during the observed period (by 56.1% or EUR 55.6bn from the levels recorded in the second quarter of 2017) and stood at EUR 154.6bn in the third quarter of 2024. Growth in household net wealth has accelerated significantly since 2021, which can be due to macroeconomic factors, such as rising real estate prices or the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. The top 10% of households account for the largest share of total net wealth. This share has been growing over the years and reached EUR 97bn in the last quarter. The bottom 50% of households account for a very small share of total wealth, only EUR 9.9bn.
Figure 1 Household net wealth in Croatia by quintiles
Sources: ECB (processed by the CNB).
A significant increase in household net wealth in Croatia is accompanied by an almost identical general growth in their housing wealth (Figure 2). The value of housing wealth rose in the observed period for all households, regardless of their employment status – by 55.2% for households with an employed reference person[1], by 27.1% for households with a retired reference person and by 7.4% for households with an unemployed reference person. However, their shares in total housing wealth changed at a much more moderate pace: households with an employed reference person recorded a rise in their share in total housing wealth by around 2.5%, while the share of households with a retired reference person decreased by almost 6 percentage points.
As housing wealth is one of the key sources of total net wealth, it can be concluded that households with larger shares of real estate ownership benefited most in the period of rising real estate prices. In addition, the share of housing wealth of retired households decreased, which is likely due to a lower rate of accumulation of new real estate among pensioners and the possible transfer of their assets to younger generations by way of inheritance or sale.
Figure 2 Housing wealth of households in Croatia by employment status of the reference person
Sources: ECB (processed by the CNB).
DWA also includes other indicators, such as mean and median net wealth of households in Croatia (Figure 3). Although the estimated mean net wealth of households in Croatia is steadily increasing, it is considerably higher that the estimate of their median net wealth, suggesting that there are large differences between households. In fact, the difference between mean and median net wealth has been increasing over time. However, both indicators are several times lower than their estimates for the euro area. Mean net wealth of households in Croatia stood at EUR 103.3 thousands at the end of the third quarter of 2024, relative to EUR 405.9 thousands recorded for the mean household in the euro area.
Figure 3 Net wealth of households in Croatia (RoC) and the euro area (EA)
Sources: ECB (processed by the CNB).
More information on accessing DWA data on the ECB Data Portal and methodology is available at link.
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A reference person is the person who answered the questions from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. ↑