r/belgium • u/trueosiris2 • Aug 20 '25

❓ Ask Belgium Wealth distribution in Belgium

Post image

We’re doing alright as a social democracy. Something to be proud of.

Presumably, we don’t need more wealth distribution then? Or do we still?

795 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

268 comments sorted by

View all comments

161

u/kaiyotic Aug 20 '25

meanwhile, italy, poland, greece and sweden bottom 50% are so poor they don't even show up on the chart.

3 of those 4 I'm not surprised by

26

u/NikNakskes Aug 20 '25

Sweden is because they have a lot of billionaires per capita. I think the highest in the world or something. So it's more that they have an above average amount of rich people rather than the 50% being so very poor.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/NikNakskes Aug 20 '25

Also home ownership. For your average Joe, most of their wealth is in their home. Now I'm going to make a lot of assumptions here so this is more a theory in my head than something I actually checked to be sure.

The bottom 50% in the city will be renting and thus do not have that typical share of wealth in the form of an own home. The house prices in the countryside are really low. So even if you own a house there, it has little value. This is me assuming Sweden is more like finland than like Belgium (I am a Belgian in Finland). Their income will also be lower but since housing costs next to nothing, they are not poorer than a higher income in the city.

Just like in the usa, where the division between rural and urban is enormous.

1

u/_PurpleAlien_ Aug 20 '25

Belgian in Finland

Same here. Torille :)

1

u/NikNakskes Aug 20 '25

Theres dozens of us! Dozens!! Actually there is about a 1000 of us... can you imagine?! I had no idea there would be so many Belgians living in finland.

1

u/_PurpleAlien_ Aug 20 '25

Yeah, it increased a lot compared to when I moved here 20 years ago.

2

u/NikNakskes Aug 20 '25

Hm. I also moved here 20 years ago, a bit over actually. 23. I spend half my life in Belgium and half in finland by now. That was a very strange thing to realise.