Publication of the Survey of Household Finances (EFF) 2020

26/09/2022

The Banco de España has recently published the main results of the latest edition of the Survey of Household Finances (EFF) for 2020. This survey is conducted every two years and provides a representative snapshot of the composition and distribution of Spanish households’ assets, debts, income and expenditure.

The following is a summary of the most noteworthy conclusions on the main variables analysed:

• (i) The level of education is a fundamental determinant of the level of income in Spanish households. The EFF shows that both the mean and median income increase with the level of education and are substantially higher for homes in which the head of the household has a university education. Thus, an education of the head of household below bachillerato (A Level equivalent) corresponds to a median income of approximately €21,900, while a university level education corresponds to a median income of €46,700.
• (ii) Wealth, both mean and median, grows with the level of education and it is substantially higher where the head of the household is self-employed. It also increases with income, reflecting both the greater availability of resources for savings among high-income households and differences in the savings rate and in the composition and performance of asset portfolios.
• (iii) In terms of assets, the primary residence is the most important asset of Spanish households, accounting for 41.9% of the value of total assets. The percentage of households owning their primary residence is higher, in general, as income and age increase. However, financial assets (mainly comprising bank accounts) account for only 20.8% of the value of total assets of Spanish households. This proportion rises from 14% for households with the lowest level of wealth to 25% for households in the upper bracket.
• (iv) With respect to indebtedness, 61.7% of Spanish household debt is linked to the mortgage on the primary residence. However, at the end of 2020, 1% of households also had some other type of debt (including personal loans or credit card debt). In fact, debt linked to consumer credit represents a significant weight on the total (especially in households with lower incomes), which can shape their financial burden as it has a higher interest rate than the mortgage.

The percentage of households that spend more than 40% of their gross income on debt repayments has also increased, especially in the case of the lowest-income households, young households and households where the head of the family is unemployed or inactive.

For more detailed information, please see the new EFF website available at the following link: https://app.bde.es/efs_www/homeAbre en ventana nueva, which offers a tool that allows you to visualise, chart and download numerous descriptive results of the main variables of the survey between 2002 and 2020.