In 2016, average household purchasing power was almost 3 percent higher than in 2015. The substantial rise in income in 2014 was not only the result of economic recovery, but was also driven by a tax measure that made it attractive for directors/principal shareholders to pay a large dividend that year. This also created a peak for households whose main source of income was sole trader activities. To a lesser extent, this effect was also apparent among pension recipients, including households for whom assets are the main source of income, often with dividend as a secondary income.

In 2016, 590,000 households had to get by on a low income; this is 8.2 percent of all households. The same figure applied in 2015, but it is a drop compared to 2014. It included 224,000 households who had been living on a low income for at least four consecutive years. That is 3.3 percent of all households. In 2014, 2.7 percent of households had been living long-term on a low income. The increase in the number of long-term low-income households is mainly because more households have come to depend on income support benefit for an extended period.

As a rule, the larger the municipality, the higher the percentage of households living on a low income. With 15.3 percent, Rotterdam had the highest proportion of low-income households in 2016, followed by Groningen (14.7 percent) and Amsterdam (14.6 percent). The municipality of Rozendaal in the province of Gelderland had the lowest percentage of low-income households: 2.9 percent. In the north-east Netherlands, however, many smaller municipalities are particularly likely to have an above-average share of low-income households.

In 2016 median household wealth rose by almost 10 percent to over 22 thousand euros. The increase in median wealth – assets minus debts – is mainly due to a rising property values. Aside from home ownership, median wealth held steady from 2015 to 2016. For the period 2006-2016, median household wealth reached its height in 2008, after which it dropped sharply as homes decreased in value.

Household capital accumulates more rapidly as life goes on. Household income declines when pension age is reached, but by this time homeowners have often repaid a substantial chunk of their mortgage. On 1 January 2016, elderly households (aged 65 to 75) had the highest capital, worth 125,000 euros on average. Beyond the age of 75, capital starts to diminish. A significant proportion of the families that make up this generation are large and had a single breadwinner, which meant that they were in less of a position to accumulate wealth than the young elderly.

With a median net worth per household of 281,000 euros, Laren in the province of Noord-Holland was the wealthiest municipality in the Netherlands on 1 January 2016. However, the top 10 was dominated by a number of small municipalities in Noord-Brabant, home to a relatively large number of elderly people.

Households in Rotterdam had the lowest median net worth per household: 1,900 euros. The Hague and Amsterdam are also in the top 10 of municipalities with the lowest household capital. A relatively high number of young people, benefit recipients and people with a non-Western migrant background live in the Netherlands’ largest cities. All of these groups tend to have little household capital.