Expatica : Belgian households lose rank as Europe's wealthiest
This ranking is not absolute but only relative to the GDP. So countries with higher GDP like Luxembourg have less chances to rank high, although its people could well be the richest.
Unfortunately, I don't have the data for other countries, so I'll just compare these 3. Which GDP figures to choose is yet another problem. Here is the data of the IMF for GDP/capita vs GDPcapita at PPP for 2004 :
Belgium : 33,866/29,707
Netherlands : 37,326/29,332
Britain : 35,548/28,938
Let's calculate each country's citizen average wealth by multiplying by the percentage from the article.
Belgium : 33,866/29,707 x 257% = 87,035 / 76,346
Netherlands : 37,326/29,332 x 268% = 100,033 / 78,609
Britain : 35,548/28,938 x 270% = 95,979 / 78,132
So at both nominal and PPP values, in 2004 the Dutch were the wealthiest, followed by the Brits, then the Belgians. Gaps are closer at PPP. The nominal GDP per capita alone had the same ranking, but the GDP per capita at PPP ranked Belgium first, followed by the Netherlands then Britain. The wealth as percentage of GDP are exactly the reverse though.
All this to say that depending how you look at the stats, the ranking can be quite different. The Belgians are first for GDP/capita at PPP, the Brits are first for wealth as percentage of GDP, but the Dutch are first when it comes to nominal GDP per capita AND real individual wealth (percentage of GDP x GDP/capita).
Expatica said:...
In ratio to Gross Domestic product (GDP), Belgians were crowned as the wealthiest Europeans in 2002, newspaper 'De Tijd' reported on Thursday.
At that time, their financial wealth amounted to 255 percent of GDP, the EU statistics office Eurostat said.
But new figures indicate that Belgium lost its top position in 2004. Despite combined wealth increasing to 257 percent of GDP, British and Dutch nationals made bigger leaps ahead.
The wealth of Britons in ratio to GDP rose from 252 to 270 percent, while Dutch wealth rose by 247 to 268 percent.
The change is possibly due to the fact British and Dutch nationals invest more in the stock market, meaning more of them profited from the recovery of markets since 2003.
...
Meanwhile, the stronger growth of Belgium's GDP in comparison with the Netherlands and Britain can help explain the nation's slide in the wealth rankings. The Belgian economy grew 2.7 percent last year, 1 percent more than Dutch GDP.
This ranking is not absolute but only relative to the GDP. So countries with higher GDP like Luxembourg have less chances to rank high, although its people could well be the richest.
Unfortunately, I don't have the data for other countries, so I'll just compare these 3. Which GDP figures to choose is yet another problem. Here is the data of the IMF for GDP/capita vs GDPcapita at PPP for 2004 :
Belgium : 33,866/29,707
Netherlands : 37,326/29,332
Britain : 35,548/28,938
Let's calculate each country's citizen average wealth by multiplying by the percentage from the article.
Belgium : 33,866/29,707 x 257% = 87,035 / 76,346
Netherlands : 37,326/29,332 x 268% = 100,033 / 78,609
Britain : 35,548/28,938 x 270% = 95,979 / 78,132
So at both nominal and PPP values, in 2004 the Dutch were the wealthiest, followed by the Brits, then the Belgians. Gaps are closer at PPP. The nominal GDP per capita alone had the same ranking, but the GDP per capita at PPP ranked Belgium first, followed by the Netherlands then Britain. The wealth as percentage of GDP are exactly the reverse though.
All this to say that depending how you look at the stats, the ranking can be quite different. The Belgians are first for GDP/capita at PPP, the Brits are first for wealth as percentage of GDP, but the Dutch are first when it comes to nominal GDP per capita AND real individual wealth (percentage of GDP x GDP/capita).