The wealth of each Portuguese adult increased by 3% in the last year and the number of millionaires grew by 22%, from 136,000 in 2020 to more than 166,000 at the end of 2022.
The Portuguese are richer than ten years ago. According to data released this Tuesday by UBS in the Global Wealth Report 2023, each adult Portuguese held, in median terms, a wealth of 66,015 euros at the end of last year, almost double that in 2012 (34,725 euros) and 2.89% more than in 2021 – which also translates into a global fortune of 149 thousand euros in 2022 (76% higher than in 2012). Underpinning the growth of Portuguese assets in the last year, which is mostly concentrated in concrete, were precisely the real estate assets that, according to UBS analysts, like in the rest of the world “remained resilient, despite the rapid rise in interest rates”.
In addition, UBS analysts reveal that, at the end of last year, the number of Portuguese owners of a fortune exceeding €1 million exceeded 166,000, equivalent to about 2% of the adult population. This is 23% higher than the number of millionaires registered at the end of 2020, or 31,000 more new fortunes; and 8.7 million more millionaires than in 2021.
And within the group of millionaires, the Global Wealth Report 2023 identifies 108 Portuguese with ultra-high fortunes (above 50 million dollars), with 9 holding fortunes beyond 500 million dollars (about 470 million euros).
Despite this growth, Portugal still represents very little in the global wealth framework: according to UBS data, the wealth generated in Portugal is equivalent to only 0.3% of the world ‘s wealth. According to data from the Global Wealth Report 2023, the majority of Portuguese (43%) have a net worth of between 10,000 dollars and 100,000 dollars (about 9400 and 94,000 euros).
Distribution of wealth in Portugal
About two-thirds of Portuguese have a net worth of less than $100,000, equivalent to about €94,000, according to UBS. In the world of millionaires, only 2% of Portuguese have a net worth of more than 1 million dollars, below the 2.8% of the European average.
UBS analysts also reveal that the Portuguese are also less indebted than they were ten years ago. If in 2012, the debt for each adult Portuguese was almost 21 thousand euros, at the end of last year the debt burden fell 6.8% to 19.5 thousand euros.
The impact of this reduction is even more relevant when one observes that the debt-to-wealth ratio has also fallen quite significantly: if in 2012 debt represented 60.3% of the wealth measured by each adult Portuguese, at the end of last year it weighed half, about 29.6%.
The evolution of national household finances is also relevant when compared to the average of European countries.
According to data from the Global Wealth Report 2023, although the median wealth of each adult European has also almost doubled in the last decade to around €27,000 (40% of the median wealth of each Portuguese), the debt held by each European has increased by 25% and the burden of debt on income remains very high: if in 2012 the debt of each European was equivalent to 132% of their wealth, at the end of last year it was 87%.
