EU Billionaires’ Wealth Surges by over €400 billion in first half of 2025

• The combined wealth of EU billionaires grew over €2 billion a day.

• Over 80% of total tax revenue in EU countries is paid primarily by ordinary Europeans, compared to 9% from companies and just 0.4% from wealth taxes.

• A European wealth tax could raise the equivalent of one year of the proposed EU 7-year budget. 

The combined wealth of EU billionaires increased by more than 400 billion euros in just six months this year – the equivalent of over two billion euros a day. That is according to Oxfam’s new report, “A European Agenda to Tax the Super-Rich” which comes ahead of European finance ministers meeting to discuss ways to finance the EU’s budget.   

In 2025, the EU counted nearly 500 billionaires, 39 more than in 2024. In the last year alone, a new billionaire was created, on average, every 9 days in the EU. 

Altogether, the richest 3,600 Europeans now hold as much wealth as the poorest 181 million – equivalent to the populations of Germany, Italy and Spain combined.  

“Europe is minting billionaires at a record rate while millions of Europeans are struggling to make ends meet,” said Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam EU tax expert. “This inequality is not by accident, it is by design.” 

The report shows how decades of tax policies have been rigged to benefit the super-rich while squeezing ordinary people. Since the 1980s, EU governments have cut taxes for the super-rich and companies, while relying more heavily on taxes paid mainly by ordinary Europeans, such as wage and consumption taxes.

Today, 8 in every 10 euros of tax revenue in the EU comes from taxes paid primarily by ordinary Europeans. Corporate income tax, the tax companies pay on their profits, makes up just 9% and taxes on wealth only 0.4%. 

Ordinary Europeans mostly earn through wages, which are, on average, taxed at a higher rate. By contrast, the super-rich grow even richer while paying less, using investments and holding companies that are taxed at lower rates or not at all in some EU countries. 

Meanwhile, wealth itself is barely taxed. Ten EU countries have no inheritance tax, and only one EU country, Spain, has a net wealth tax. This means the super-rich often pay a much lower effective tax rate on their income and wealth than ordinary people.  

While wealth has exploded into the hands of a very few, European governments have grown relatively poorer, with most new wealth going into private pockets instead of public budgets. In the 1990s, governments owned about 10% of total wealth – now it is almost half at just 6%. Based on the latest data available, Oxfam estimates that if governments had kept that share, EU countries would have an additional 3.6 trillion euros in 2023 to invest in public services.  

“The pie got bigger, but the government’s slice shrank – leaving less for schools and hospitals and piling debt on future generations while more goes into the hands of the super-rich. Wealth is not trickling down, it is exploding upwards,” said Putaturo.

“We need an urgent rewrite of tax rules in Europe to make sure everyone plays by them and pays their fair share of tax. The EU needs fresh resources to fund its budget to fight the climate crisis, keep its aid promises, and tackle inequality. To do this, the EU should adopt a plan to tax the super-rich and EU countries should not wait – they can act now by increasing taxes on the income and wealth of the super-rich at home”, said Putaturo.