About this dashboard

• Title: Wealth in the life cycle
• Number: 2/2022
• Date: June 8, 2022
• Author: HFCS Team, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB)
• Data: HFCS Austria 2017

What we do

• This dashboard is part of our series of Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) dashboards.
• Each dashboard is designed to provide concise information on a specific topic.
• The information displayed - be it figures, tables or text - is based on different data sources, including the HFCS.

Who we are

• We are the HFCS team of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB).
• As such, we are tasked with collecting and analyzing data on Austrian households’ finances and consumption.
• For more information on the HFCS in Austria, visit our website for the HFCS Austria.

How to contact us

• If you have any questions please use our contact tool.

Find out more by clicking on the Question tab!

Question

Question

How is wealth accumulated in the life cycle of households in Austria and what role do inheritances play therein?

Main definitions

Household reference person is determined by using the UN/Canberra definition in UNECE (2011). According to this definition, the following criteria should be applied in the order listed until a single appropriate reference person is identified: (1) one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage, with dependent children, (2) one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage, without dependent children, (3) a lone parent with dependent children, (4) the person with the highest income, (5) the eldest person.

Inheritance: Throughout the dashboard the term inheritance is used to refer to any type of intergenerational transfers such as inheritances or gifts that any person in the household ever received.

Net wealth = real assets + financial assets - debt

• Examples: Real assets include real estate, land or vehicles; financial assets include sight accounts, savings accounts, stocks or bonds; debts include mortgages, overdraft debt or credit card debt.

Income = combined income of all members of a household

• Examples: Income includes gross labor income, non-labor income, public transfers or private transfers

Saving rate: percentage of a household’s disposable income that is not consumed in a given period

• Example: If your disposable income is EUR 1500, and you decide to spend EUR 1200 on consumption, then the amount saved is EUR 300. Hence, the saving rate is 20%.

Main background facts for Austria

• Besides saving, inheritances and gifts form a major source of private wealth.
• Almost two thirds of Austrian households say that they never received an inheritance or gift.
• The mean amount inherited in Austria is around EUR 246.000 and the median around EUR 88.000 (present values).
• Generally, the higher the household’s wealth, the higher the probability of having received an inheritance.
• Low-wealth households have received a higher share of their gross wealth as inheritances. Altough they inherited less in absolute terms, they inherited more in relative terms to their gross wealth.

For detailed information on the methodology, please refer to the methodological notes and the first results in the Austrian HFCS.

Households who ever received an inheritance / gift

Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.

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Answers