A first glimpse into the gender wealth gap in Luxembourg: Report on the wealth situation of women and men

The goal of this report is to provide an overview of the wealth situation of women and men in Luxembourg. Luxembourg is the country with the highest mean and median value of household net wealth among euro area countries, but to date no studies have analyzed the gender wealth gap in Luxembourg. The descriptive findings of this report indicate that households, where men report being the more financially knowledgeable person on average have higher levels of net wealth. The difference in wealth levels of never married women and men is sharper than on average for the overall population. When comparing investment levels of particular assets, this report finds that men invest a higher proportion of their wealth in financial assets, while women do so in housing. This suggests that women prefer to save, while men prefer to invest. In addition, women are more likely to own real estate compared to men, while men are more likely to own risky assets. Debt participation varies by marital status: single men are more likely to have some type of debt than single women, while it is the opposite for households where both partners are present. Conditioning on participation in assets and debts, women in the middle of the distribution are more indebted than men. The opposite is true for financial, business and non-financial wealth ? a median man has a higher value of assets.