Gli anziani detengono quasi il 70% dei risparmi delle famiglie spagnole

TRANSLATION

Spaniards are living longer and longer, but fewer children are being born to sustain the pension system. This demographic shift poses numerous economic and social challenges that make it necessary to focus on how the contribution of different age groups to the welfare system is changing, key aspects for anticipating the economic and social challenges of the coming decades, especially in a context of accelerated demographic aging.

This reality is what the report “Income and Expenditure of Spanish Households by Age and Gender” has set out to analyze, promoted by the Ageingnomics Research Center of Fundación Mapfre and the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA). Specifically, the aim of the document is “to better understand how much members of Spanish households earn and what they spend on, as well as to reveal what they receive from and contribute to the public system according to their age and gender.”

Broadly speaking, the study highlights that seniors, understood as those over 55 years of age, account for 68% of household savings and 43% of total economic resources, figures that show they have become an economic driving force for the country. This contrasts with the situation of young people, who are highly dependent on their families and on the support the Government can provide. In this context, the document indicates, Spaniards between the ages of 30 and 54 emerge as the productive engine, as they finance a significant portion of public consumption and social benefits.

“Those over 55 are not merely recipients of benefits, but a group with enormous economic weight: they are savers, active consumers, they sustain family networks through intergenerational transfers, and they constitute a fundamental pillar of financial and patrimonial stability,” stressed Juan Fernández Palacios, director of the Ageingnomics Research Center of Fundación Mapfre, at the presentation of the report on Wednesday. He believes the study makes it possible to understand more precisely the economic impact of aging and to highlight the strategic role of the senior economy in our country.

Fernández Palacios also noted that “understanding their economic behavior is key to designing public policies and business strategies adapted to this new demographic reality.”

Ángel de la Fuente, executive director of Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA), also spoke at the event, emphasizing that “the analysis shifts the focus from the household as an aggregate unit to individuals, making it possible to observe with precision their income and expenditure patterns throughout the life cycle and the redistributive flows that occur through the public sector and within households themselves. This offers us a much more complete and detailed picture of how resources are generated, redistributed, and used in Spain.”

Who receives, finances, and saves the most

The report quantifies the average fiscal balance by age and gender, that is, the difference between what a person contributes in taxes and social contributions and what they receive through public benefits and services. In this regard, the analysis by age shows that people do not maintain the same balance between income and expenditure throughout their lives.

During childhood and youth (up to age 29), labor income is low and consumption is financed mainly through private transfers among family members and public spending, especially on education and healthcare. This group accounts for only 21.6% of total resources (330.983 billion euros). It is, therefore, a stage of economic dependency financed by families and the State.

Between the ages of 30 and 54, most workers are concentrated, making it the age group with the greatest capacity to generate income and contribute to the system. This group mobilizes a total of 606.852 billion euros in resources, accounts for most labor income, and pays more than half of the total collected in taxes and social security contributions from the population. It is therefore the main net contributor and the financial pillar of the welfare system, financing a large part of public spending directed at young people and seniors.

From age 55 onward, the pattern changes significantly. This group, which in 2022 already numbered 16.1 million people, 34% of the population and generating 32.8% of GDP, concentrates 592.719 billion euros in resources, including market income and benefits. Seniors receive 183.070 billion euros in public monetary benefits, mainly pensions; they contribute 138.173 billion in taxes and social contributions (representing 34.5% of the total); and, moreover, they account for 68% of total household savings (73.578 billion euros).

Isn’t this a worldwide trend? Younger people do not generate wealth, those days are over.

Edit: Looks like I have to clarify it in detail – “wealth for themselves”

This is fine 🙃

There is a hardcore campaign from the elites trying to blame seniors for what elites do, which is draining the wealth from everyone, not only young people.

They used to blame immigrants, now they blame old people.

Sign of the times. Multiple problems coming together but starts at seniors being house owners in a market where house valuation jumped tremendously creating a huge gap between who owns and who can’t afford to own.

I would love to know the cost of housing for each age group. That would probably show why savings are like that.

Where’s the news? People have always accumulated assets as they age and have relatives die and leave them more assets.

Does anyone actually believe your average 20 year old has ever had more than your average 60 year old?

I know it’s not fair. It’d be great to be rich at 20 but we all know we would blow it on a fancy car and first class plane tickets so wouldn’t be rich anymore

Probably because they have spent all their working lives saving what they could and paying into their pension. Bet they didn’t have savings in their youth 🤷‍♂️

how about blaming billionaires instead of each other